The Runaway
by carnation-princess
Summary: After an accident that leaves Kili in a coma, Fili runs away thinking he is not loved. Can his family find him before someone else does? Erebor never fell.
1. The Runaway

Disclaimer-I don't own any of this, I am just playing and will return everyone and everything when I'm done.

I am using the axebow website to calculate dwarven ages. So Fíli at the time of this story would be 10 years old in human years.

* * *

It was a dark, frigid, moonless night at the end of January, one of those nights where one just wanted to curl up next to the fire with a hot cup of tea. Certainly, it was no place for a 20-year-old dwarfling to be wandering around, especially not in the forest of Mirkwood.

The dwarfling was covered in mud, caking around his long curly locks. He appeared to have blonde hair once, but now it was black, as black as the night. His sky blue eyes appeared dim and old. They did not look like they belonged on a dwarfling whose beard was just starting to make an appearance. His clothes, dirty and ripped in various places looked like they were regal once, but now were clothes for a pauper.

The dwarfling coughed, as more tears threatened to fall. He thought he had no more tears to cry but just the mere thought of being lost on an unfamiliar path in Mirkwood made more tears fall. He had wandering alone for three days now, surviving on whatever plants he could find on the paths and water from the almost constant rain that had finally subsided what felt like minutes ago. In reality it has stopped 5 hours ago, but Fíli, the dwarfling did not know that, so wet and miserable was he.

Just when Fíli thought he could not get any worse for the wear, he tripped over something and found himself meeting the muddy ground yet again. That was the third time since he ran away from home he found himself face in ground. He lay on the ground crying in darkness of night, letting tears carry him to the world of haunting dreams.

"_Hey Fíli!" A young voice shouted._

"_Kíli, don't come closer!" Fíli yelled back._

_Footsteps came closer to him, as all of the sudden the room got bigger and bigger. Fíli looked around, this was not his great-grandfather's throne room, was it? He didn't have time to think as Kíli entered the room that was growing by the second. _

_Next thing Fíli knew, the floor opened up beneath his brother and he disappeared. _

"_KEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!" he screamed. _

Fíli shot up off the ground with a scream. 'Just a dream', he thought to himself. It was now morning, the dawning of his fourth day of running away. He knew he could never return to Erebor, fourth in line for the throne or not, not after what he did, not after what was said to him. Fíli stood up and continued his journey, stopping twice to pick some berries that he found and to take a sip of water that had collected in a leaf. He smiled for the first time in five days when he finally saw the edge of Mirkwood and what he considered freedom.

* * *

Meanwhile back in Erebor, there was a lot of commotion coming from the royal chambers. It had been five days since what is now being called 'the accident' which left Young Prince Kíli in a coma, and Prince Fíli missing. Servants, extended family members, and members of the court were running around everywhere, many it seemed had no destination in mind. One royal, Princess Dís, the mother of Fíli and Kíli had not left her youngest side since her brother Frérin brought Kíli to her in his state five days ago. She currently sat in a chair holding her youngest son's hand as the door silently opened to let in the elderly royal healer, Narvi to change the bandages that currently criss-crossed Kíli's body and head.

"Milady," Narvi said, softly as not to disturb his patient, "has there been any news about Prince Fíli? Has anyone seen him?"

Dís could only shake her head no. Her father Thráin, her brothers Thórin and Frérin, her husband Víli, as well as a small contingent of royal guards were all out searching Erebor and the surrounding areas for any trace of her son. However, so far all of the ravens and messengers coming back have been negative. It had been four days, five since the accident, and four since she had last seen her golden haired son.

Narvi weakly smiled and grabbed Dís hand, off her son. "If you need anything, let me know." Narvi left the room as silently as he came in.

Dís returned her hand to her son. "Kíli, mama's here, please wake up," she said softly while trying to hold back tears. "Kíli, please."

The tears could no longer hold back, all she wanted was Kíli to wake up and Fíli to be safe in her arms once again. But, she was beginning to lose hope, the hope that she would ever see Kíli open his eyes and would be able to kiss Fíli goodnight. She leaned forward and could do nothing but cry into her son's bedside. She didn't even realize that her grandfather, King Thrór had walked in to cover her with a blanket. There was nothing to be said, nothing that could be said, nothing that could be done, but wait.


	2. The Search Party

Fíli could not believe the sight that awaited him just beyond the edge of the trees, a large empty plain, with what he believed to the Misty Mountains in front of him. In his muddled mind, he knew to be truly free; he would have to get to the other side of those mountains. However, this being his first time this far away from home, he would never survive crossing the mountains. He was flat out told that in all of his lessons by various tutored and well-meaning family members, well former family members. Fíli never wanted to see them again, and they would never accept him back, not after what he did, not after what happened. His eyes filled with tears just thinking about it again.

He had to make a decision, attempt to cross the mountains or find a way around the mountains. If he remembered correctly, one of his tutors, Vitr, taught him about the Gap of Rohan, a way through the mountains without climbing, and in order to get there from Erebor, cut through Mirkwood, and turn left. It was the only way; Fíli made the final step out of Mirkwood, and turned left, oblivious to the noisy footsteps that were sneaking up from behind him.

* * *

"Fíli! Fíli! Where are you?" A loud demanding voice cried in the middle of the bustling city of Dale.

The people of Dale were stopping to stare at the well-dressed dwarf. They all knew who he was, Prince Thráin, heir to the throne of Erebor. It was extremely rare to see Prince Thráin in Dale, even rarer to see him in a near state of panic.

"Fíli!" He yelled again.

By that point, people were starting to crowd around the Prince. It was common knowledge that the name being called was Thráin's daughter's eldest son, his grandson, Fíli. But, no one knew why he would be looking for the young dwarfling in Dale of all palaces. Shouldn't he be safe in the Lonely Mountain?

Thráin looked around, hoping upon hoping that any second; the golden haired dwarfling would run about from behind a barrel or a house into his waiting arms. The more he wished, the more hope he lost that that wish wasn't coming true at that point. In addition, for some strange reason, a new feeling that was arising in him, a feeling that he felt for a brief second five days ago, at the dwarfling in question, but that feeling wasn't directed at Fíli at all. This feeling of anger was directed at the one whom Thráin felt was directly responsible for Fíli running.

"Father!" A younger voice broke him out of his reverie.

Thráin turned around to see three dwarves running towards him, two dark haired ones, his sons Thórin and Frérin, and his daughter's husband, the golden haired Víli. The crowd parted to let the three of them through. Thráin smiled at Frérin and Víli, but could only scowl at his eldest, his heir, Thórin, for it was him he was angry at. He was the reason they were all there in Dale at that moment, and he was the reason why Fíli, his own heir was missing at that moment.

"Any sign?" Thráin asked, directing his question towards his son-in-law.

Víli only shook his head no. No one in Dale had seen Fíli, not a single soul. His heart was breaking, his eldest son was gone, no one had seen him in five days, and his youngest was currently unconscious back home with his wife, her mother, and her grandparents. The rest of the family was with him. Although at that moment, he wished he could wish his oldest brother-in-law away. He hadn't been able to say more than two words to him in 5 days; at least today he could look at him for a few seconds before getting repulsed. Sure Thórin had tried to start a conversation, they used to be best friends, but Víli wasn't sure if they could ever go back to the way things were after all that happened. Víli was almost positive if anything happened to either of his boys, he would personally murder Thórin. He would never speak to him again. He would not, he could not.

"I don't think he's here, Father," Frérin said. "We met with Girion, who told us that no one had seen him. He didn't think he had ever come through here. He said he would tell the guard to keep an eye out, but I think we need to move out of Dale. He is not here."

Thráin nodded at Frerin. He began to run in the direction of Mirkwood, the other three following him. The crowd parted, before they disappeared out of Dale, Víli gave what looked like a small wave of the hand, and ten other dwarves appeared from behind the gates and followed the royal family. Could Fíli have gone into Mirkwood? Very possible, since Thrór and Thranduíl became allies and friends upon Thrór recolonizing Erebor. Thranduíl, his son Legolas, and Tauriel, captain and bodyguard of the king were frequent visitors to the Lonely Mountain. Was it possible that Fíli had gone to visit his first non-dwarven friends, Legolas and Tauriel? It was worth a visit, if not, he could get the Mirkwood elves involved in the search, Fíli was well loved among the elves of Mirkwood, they would help, or else. Thráin nodded and led the contingent into the forest of Mirkwood.

* * *

Fíli walked along the River Anduin towards what he hoped was the Gap of Rohan. A light breeze blew across his mud-caked hair, his stomach rumbled with hunger. He had not eaten a true meal since running away. All of the sudden he felt a large weight on his shoulders, as he met the ground again…


	3. Chapter 3

Fíli found himself on the ground again, but this time there was a clawing weight on his back ripping his shirt, scratching the exposed skin. He could hear the heavy breathing of whatever it was that was on him. He could feel the determination that the creature had to making him his next meal. What a fitting end this would be for a one-time heir to the Throne of Erebor.

_You're no heir of mine!_

Fíli knew this was the end, and what a fitting end this would be, he knew that if anyone cared enough to come looking for him, there would be no body to find, no trace of him ever. All of the sudden the creature whimpered, and released him.

"Get away, you crazy mutt!" a voice yelled from above him.

A warm heavy hand was placed on the wounds on his back. Fíli whimpered in pain, now he was in for it, he did not want to turn around and face reality at his rescuer. But his rescuer had other ideas as he felt his body being turned around.

"Bofur, Bifur, we have a young one here!" his rescuer called.

Fíli opened up his eyes, and was greeted by what seemed like the widest dwarf he had ever seen! Not as tall as his cousin, Dáin, but wide and round with long orange tinted hair with a bushy orange moustache, and a thick orange braid that went down to his stomach. Orange was the only color he could use here, as that flaming red belonged to his cousin Glóin.

"Are you okay lad?" the dwarf asked as his was joined by two others, one with a strange hat, and another with an axe in his forehead? That didn't make any sense.

Fíli whimpered in pain. His rescuer frowned and placed his large hand on his forehead. Fíli turned away, he did not want to be touched, he did not deserve it, not after what he did.

_Your're no heir of mine! _

"What's your name lad?" His rescuer asked. He seemed like he was genuinely looking to help as well as his two companions, who had knelt down on either side of him.

Fíli saw no harm in telling these dwarves his name. They obviously did not recognize him, and he did not recognize them. They did not appear to be from Erebor or the Iron Hills. Total strangers, nomads perhaps.

"Fíli", he whimpered out in pain.

His rescuer smiled, "My name in Bombur, my brother kneeling besides you in the silly hat is Bofur, and our cousin with the axe in his head is Bifur."

Bofur gave his brother a look but was able to smile and say hello to Fíli. Bifur muttered something in Kuzdul, something that Fíli was not able to catch in his so far basic Kuzdul skills.

A bark sounded from behind Bofur scaring Fíli and causing him to jump into Bombur's arms, who held him tightly. Bombur squeezed Fíli tightly. "Are you afraid of little Johnny Boy there, Fíli?"

Fíli nodded into Bombur's chest. All of the sudden he felt a warm tongue licking him on the arm. He turned his head. In Bifur's arms was the smallest little puppy ever, but its claws were sharp! Putting two and two together, Fíli laughed. He was knocked over by a puppy smaller than Kíli! Bombur, Bofur, and Bifur all smiled at each other over Fíli's laughter, which suddenly turned to tears as Fíli remembered Kíli and why he was away from home to begin with.

_Your're no heir of mine! _

* * *

Dís awoke with a startle as something beneath her arm began to move. Kíli! Dís went to open up her mouth to say something, when suddenly the five-year-old dwarfling began to move around uncontrollably. It was his first movement in nearly six days now, ever since the accident. But, this was not normal. Dís tried to grab her son's arms but he pulled them away and ended up punching her in the cheek hard instead.

Immediately, she yelled out a loud scream, and moved her hand to her cheek in pain which caused multiple footsteps to be heard in the hallway and finally opening the door to the young prince's room where they currently were. Narvi ran immediately ran to Kíli's side, who nodded to someone out of Dís's vision.

"Don't touch him," Narvi yelled at someone whose hand was about to grab Kíli.

She felt a strong arm on her shoulder coaxing her to stand up. She looked up, it was her cousin Dáin from the Iron Hills. She and he had always been close growing up, and she was glad to see him in that moment. She got up and followed Dáin out of her son's room, whom she knew was in the very best of hands at that moment with Narvi, Thrór, Náin (her uncle), &amp; a couple of other healers.

Just as Dáin nearly had her out of the room, Kíli shrieked, causing her to turn an about face with Dáin quickly on her heels. She pushed her grandfather out of her way to get back to her son who would not stop moving.

"Kíli! Mama's here!" She cried, as strong arms began to pull her away as she grabbed Kíli's seizing hand.

"Get her out of here!" Narvi cried to Dáin, and he pushed Dís away into the stronger arms of her cousin.

"NOOOOOOO! Kíli. Dáin, nooooo!" Dís cried and Dáin succeeded in getting her out of the room.

Suddenly, Kíli stopped moving around with a sigh. Narvi quickly checked the dwarfling's breathing. Satisfied that he was he allowed the person who was about to touch him before, touch him. It was Thrór, who replaced Dís on the chair. He smoothed out his great-grandson's hair that had become a mess in the seizure.

"What did we just see?" Thrór asked Narvi.

Narvi shook his head. He did not know how to the answer that one.

"Something awful, Sire, something awful."

Náin sighed and went to follow his son and niece; he felt he could be of more use there.

* * *

Thráin led the search party down the paths of Mirkwood, toward the grand palace of their allies. He was hoping to run into a scouting party that Thranduil sends out. The quicker he found anyone, the quicker the search for his grandson could resume. He still could not talk to his eldest son. He had never been so mad at him. It was an accident, only a simple accident, things happen. However, accidents that knock a young dwarfling into unconsciousness were erare. Still that was no reason at all to practically disown another young dwarfling who loved you like a second father. Especially one, who was barely into his twenties, still a child.

"Father," said a currently much-hated voice, stopping the party.

"Thórin, don't talk to me right now, I don't want to talk to you."

"Father," the voice tried again as he came up beside him and placed a hand on his shoulder.

"I will not talk to you until my grandson is found, until then, I have nothing to say to you."

The hand dropped solemnly off his shoulder. Thráin was being stubborn and he knew it. In rough times, the House of Durin should be sticking together, not practically exiling one of their own, no matter how mad they are at him at the moment.

Thórin tried one more time. He was tired of practically being ignored ever since being told he was coming along to look for Fíli. "Father, if I could take it all back what I said and did I would, but we have to find Fíli first, and for that we need to work together."

That caused Víli and Frérin to stop their side conversation and look in the direction of the crown prince and heir. What was Thráin going to do? Thórin was right, but none of them were ever going to forgive him if something happened to Fíli.

Thráin did not have a chance to answer when all of the sudden the search party found themselves surrounded by the sound and sight of many bows and arrows being pointed in their direction…

"And that is how I became an orphan," Fíli said to his new friends as they sat around a fire with a dinner in a pot that Bombur was cooking.

"Wow, Fíli, that seems like you've survived a very long time by yourself," Bofur said.

Fíli smiled, they had bought his story that he just made up at the top of his head. If he told them that he was a runway prince, they most likely would deliver him back to the one person who he had loved more than his parents, and said person had practically thrown him away.

"Yea, I have been."

Bombur grabbed four bowls out of his pack and began to serve dinner. It was going to be Fíli's first real dinner in six days now was it? He had lost track of time, and to him it didn't matter anymore. Bombur handed him a bowl with a spoon. Fíli tried the stew, it was the best thing he had ever tasted! Even better than the royals chefs. He began to quickly eat the stew, so hungry was he.

"Careful there laddie, you don't want to make yourself sick," Bombur said as he sat down next to him.

Fíli could almost smile, Bombur at that moment sounded like his Uncle Frérin, it was silly. He refused to think about his other uncle, he only had one, though that other uncle would always say that him when his mother and father were too slow. Fíli was very confused. If he were to return home, would he even be welcome there anymore? He did not know.

What he did know was that he was enjoying the little show that Bifur and Bofur were putting on at that moment, with Bofur playing a recorder, and Bifur banging a pot as a drum. He was laughing at the show, but all of the sudden he felt himself doze off. The last thing he remembered was his eyes drooping and him laying his head onto Bombur's shoulder just as he used to do to his other uncle…


	4. Wargs in the Distance

"Thranduil, can you help us?" Thráin asked, placing his goblet of wine on the table.

Thranduil looked around at the odd little dwarven party currently seated at his dining table. It was not an uncommon sight to see dwarves from Erebor in Mirkwood, but it was very unusual to see this many of the royal family all at once in Mirkwood. He was a king surrounded by princes and lords, including his own son, Legolas. One of those princes, the second in line to the throne of Erebor looked sullen, depressed, and guilty without a doubt. Thranduil had never seen Thórin like that before, and he had known him when he was just a blink in his mother's eye, and to put it frankly he did not like it. It was wrong. This entire situation was wrong, including how this party had formed.

_Thranduil was out hunting with his son and a few of the royal guards, including Tauriel. It was rare that he as the king went out hunting but for some reason something told him to go. They had gotten no more than an hour outside of the palace when he heard a familiar voice saying something that he never wanted to hear. _

"…_but we have to find Fíli first, and for that we need to work together."_

_He gave the signal for the hunting party to draw but not shoot. The voice stopped talking and instead gasped, among what sounded like 20 other gasps. He stayed in the shadows until he was sure it was who he thought it was._

"_Thráin, Thórin, Frérin, Víli, what are you all doing here?" Legolas asked confirming his father's suspicions. _

_Before anyone could answer, Thranduil made his presence known. _

_All of the dwarves looked towards the crown prince of Erebor to make the first move as their leader. _

_Just then, Thráin did something that shocked everyone. He got down to his knees and bowed to the Woodland King. "My Lord Thranduil, I beg of you for your help. My grandson, Fíli is missing."_

_Thranduil made the motion for all 14 dwarves (he had greatly overestimated the number) and his cut-short hunting party to follow him back to the palace. He led them into the dining room and ordered the servants to bring in the wine and some food. These dwarves looked emaciated..._

As one of Erebor's closest allies, Thranduil was forced to help. But, as time went one, Legolas along with Tauriel, became close friends with the royal family, and in time even himself. He found himself particularly friendly with the crown prince. There was no way he could say no, even though he was not told why Fíli was missing, he knew he had to be found.

"Legolas, Tauriel," Thranduil said addressing his son and his captain, "go with the royal family and join the search party. I will take a small party and search in another area."

At that, he saw smiles light up Thráin's, Frérin's, and Víli's. He was now certain this all had to do with Thórin, for his face showed not happiness and hope like his family, but guilt all the ways through. Thórin was responsible for all of this, he just was not sure how, but he was determined to help set right this entire situation.

* * *

Fíli wasn't sure what woke him up in the middle of the night. Was it the wind? A warg? A wolf? Whatever it was it caused him to lean in closer to his soft pillow. The pillow moaned and pulled him in closer. He had no idea where he was at that point but in his sleepy mind, he did not care, he was comfortable, he began to drift off to the land of dreams.

"Bombur, Bifur, Fíli, we have to get out of here now!" a loud voice cried bringing Fíli back to the real world.

Bifur asked Bofur what was going on, or at least Fíli thought that's what Bifur was asking. He was just starting to learn Khuzdûl, when he ran away.

"Wargs! Orcs! A whole bunch of them! We need to get back to the caravan, and fast, we need to get out of here!" Bofur yelled as he began to throw pots, pans, instruments and whatever he could find into his pack.

Bombur and Bifur shared a nod and before Fíli knew, he was on his own two feet joining in the packing up, as a warg screamed in the distance. He shuttered, as a voice said in his head, "If you hear a warg, head up into a tree". Fíli smiled at the memory as small as it was, a memory of a life he could no longer have.

Before he knew it, he felt a tug on his arm, it was Bombur and the four of them began to run in the opposite direction of the wargs, towards what was that Bofur had said, a caravan? What is that? For the first time, Fíli felt small and very scared. He wanted to go home, not to an unloving unwanted family, but to the safety of the mountain. Another scream from a warg; they had to keep moving.

* * *

"Kíli!" a voice cried in the darkness.

"Wake up, Sweetie."

Who was talking? Where was he? Why was everything so dark?

"Kíli, Great-grandson, please wake up."

He did not want to wake up. He felt safe, comfortable in the darkness. It was not time to wake up yet. So, he did not.

Something was bothering him, who was this Kíli all the voices were talking about?


	5. Chapter 5

Thank you to kasmira36 for pointing out my mistake in this chapter!

I have to apologize for the late post. My grandmother had surgery and is now in rehab. I have no idea which way is up at this point.

* * *

"Fíli, Fíli, where are you?" Thráin yelled in a part of the deepest part of Mirkwood.

"Fíli, Fíli! This isn't funny anymore!" Legolas yelled in a different direction.

"Fíli! Fíli! Son, are you here?" Víli screamed.

This wasn't funny anymore, thought Thórin. His nephew was missing, his dear, sweet nephew, whom in his short life was probably the most important person in Thórin's life, and now he was missing. There was only one person to blame for this, and it was himself.

To make matters worse, he had turned everyone in his family against him because of it. His own father won't even look him in the eye, and forget his mother. His sister had only said one sentence to him before he left her with Kíli and ran to join the search part for Fíli. His brother and brother-in-law could not even look in his direction, he did not even want to think about what his grandparents think of him back home. He was even sure Legolas and Tauriel were against him as well once they had been told by Thráin what had happened. Thórin even felt sick about the feeling of Thranduil hating him. He was all alone in the world, probably worse than he imagined Fíli to be feeling.

He had been taught at a young age not to show emotion, but at this point, all he felt like doing was crying. He remembered what had happened as if it had happened earlier today.

_Thórin and Dwalin were in the training room dueling with swords. Víli and Frérin were sitting underneath a stone statue of Durin that had been there for centuries watching the dance of swords. It was an intense dance that was showing no signs of stopping, when one went on the offense, the other defense that turned to offense. It was an endless loop. _

"_Fee, catch me!" a very young voice cried. _

_Laughter answered. Two dwarfling princes were done with lessons for the day and now were creating havoc throughout Erebor. Normally when Throin and Dwalin would hear Fíli or Kíli's voice the duel would stop in its tracks. However, today it just wanted to continue. _

_All of the sudden to door to the training room opened up and 15-year-old Kíli came running into the room followed by his golden haired brother, a room both princes knew they were banned from entering. _

"_I'm going to get you, Kíli!" Fíli yelled. _

_Kíli darted right down the middle of the room, right into the midst of the duel; Fíli following. Kíli had one destination in mind, the stone statue where his father and uncle were sitting. Suddenly Kíli screamed in pain. Thórin, not paying attention had swung his sword and hit Kíli in the head with the handle, and somehow bringing him airborne where he came to rest at the base of the stone statue where Víli and Frérin were sitting. _

_That had stopped the duel as both swords fell to the floor and Fíli, for all he could do was stare there in horror. "Kíli!" everyone in the room had said at once. The dwarfling remained motionless. _

_In horror, Frérin picked up his youngest nephew, and made way to leave the room to the infirmary, Víli on his heels. Dwalin excused himself to go find Dis to tell her what happened, leaving Throin with Fíli who was now in tears. _

_In that moment, Thórin was livid. Fíli and Kíli knew better than to walk into that room, nevermind play in that room. He let his anger talk. _

"_What were you thinking, Fíli? Allowing your brother to run into this room and for you to follow him not trying to stop him, but in laughter nonetheless! What were you thinking?" _

_Fíli sniffled, and looked down at the floor, and mumbled something incomprehensible. _

_Thórin had had enough. He grabbed Fíli's chin and made him look him in the eye. _

"_You have been told multiple times, you and your bother both not to come into the room. As the older brother you should have been watching him, and should have prevented him from entering this room, but did you? No, you decided to drop down to his level!" Thórin all but yelled at his nephew. _

_Thórin dropped Fíli's chin, and allowed him a moment of tears. "What do you have to say for yourself?" This time Thórin did yell. _

"_I'm sorry uncle." Fíli all but whispered. _

"_What did you say?" Thórin yelled again._

"_I said I'm sorry uncle!" Fíli shouted the last word. _

_Thórin was beyond mad at that point. Fíli should have known better, and all he could say was I'm sorry? _

"_How dare you! How dare you apologize to me! You knew you were wrong! As fourth in line for the throne you should know better! YOU'RE NO HEIR OF MINE! GET OUT! I DON'T WANT TO SEE YOUR FACE!" Thórin screamed. _

_Fíli didn't have to be told twice he turned and left the room. At that moment, Thórin fell to his knees tears. What had he just done? The rest of the day was a blur to him, as everyone in the royal quarters seemed to ignore him. He didn't even realize Fíli was missing until Dis came up to him in tears._

"_Thórin, how could you?" She left almost as soon as she had come. _

_Thórin ran to the gate and saw his father, Frérin, Víli, and a contingent of guards leaving. He asked the gatekeeper where they were going. Those words he said would haunt Thórin forever. _

"_They're going to go find Prince Fíli, my lord. He is not in the mountain."_

_At that moment, Thórin regretted what had happened in the training room more than anything. He turned on his heels back to his room, grabbed his pack, sword, and water skin. He made a beeline to the kitchen and grabbed some bread, and salted meat, and filled up his water skin. He turned to leave the kitchen when he found himself looking at a much older version of himself, only this version was wearing a crown. His grandfather, Thrór, King Under the Mountain. He could only stare at the king who could only stare back. _

_Thórin tried to go around Thrór, but the king was fast as he put his arm out to block his mad dash. _

"_My king?" Thórin asked._

"_You caused this, now you fix this." Thrór said as he put his arm down. _

_Throin ran past the king, to the gate, and ran to catch up with the search party…_

In reality it had been a little over a week. Had it really been a week since he had last seen his nephew? No, it was over a week, was it? The days were blurring together for him, in his social exile. Thórin was beginning to feel isolated. If anyone would give him the time of day, he would apologize, apologize for both his nephews. He was worried for Kíli at the time and took it out on the one who couldn't defend himself. For probably killing his youngest, and telling his oldest to leave and for all intense purposes, disowning him.

Once he found Fíli, he was going to apologize to him, and hold him in his arms and never let him go again. He just hoped he wouldn't lose Fíli to Frérin. It was the oddest thing between him and his brother. When Fíli was born, he had taken him and had been Fíli's uncle, Frérin was just and extra uncle that stood in the background. When Kíli was born the opposite happened. Frérin had taken him and Thórin became the extra uncle. Sure, both his brother and himself loved both their sister-sons equally, but when it came time for discipline when neither Dis nor Víli were there, Thórin always took Fíli and Frérin always took Kíli. It was just the way things were.

He didn't even hear Tauriel come up next to him. His eyes were watering at the memory. He was beginning to lose hope of ever getting his family back. He barely felt her put her hand on his shoulder, his first person-to-person contact with someone else in what was beginning to feel like a lifetime. He leaned into his friend's touch, when all of the sudden a cry went out. Tauriel released him and both ran to the center of the search area where their party had gathered. Víli was in the center of it with Legolas looking solemn. Thórin at that point could not stop the tears from flowing. For in Víli's hands was a lock of blonde curly hair and a piece of ripped cloth. At closer inspection, the ripped cloth was Durin blue and had half the symbol of the royal house on it. It could only belong to Fíli.

* * *

A finger jerked, or so Narvi thought. It was his turn to sit with the youngest prince of Erebor. Everyone in the royal family currently in Erebor had gone to bed, so it was just him and the listless prince. Narvi frowned at that for it had been too long since Kíli had smiled at anyone, or tried to throw a rock at his great-grandfather. He was beginning to fear that he would never do that again.

Narvi reached out to smooth Kíli's dark hair back away from eyes. He pulled back, he could have sworn he felt his eyes twitch. He turned his gaze to Kíli's hands again, this time he did not imagine it, a finger was moving. Was Kíli waking up? He did not want to give the royal family false hope, but Kíli deserved to wake up to faces who loved him. He signaled for the guard to go wake up the king and his family. But why did he feel that something was not right with the dwarfling?

* * *

Fíli tried to keep up with Bofur, Bombur, and Bifur, but his short young legs kept him behind. Even that dog was keeping up, or was he a little ahead? It didn't matter, all that did that with every step he took closer to the caravan, the further away he got from those who didn't want him. He groaned as his foot met another rock he couldn't see and he once again found himself meeting the ground. He was done with the ground after this week, he vowed never to sit nor sleep on the ground again. A warg screamed in the distance.

"Help!" he screamed.

He lifted his head only to see Bifur come and pick him up. Instead of placing him on his feet, he put Fíli's head on his shoulder, and held him there, and began to run. They could not stop. They had to move, and they had to get the caravan out of the way. In Bifur's arms, he felt comfortable, more comfortable than he had felt in a long time, well not as comfortable as last night as he felt sleeping on Bombur, but comfortable, and well protected. Bifur reminded him a lot of his un-Frérin and cou-Dáin, and Bombur was well, Dad. He wasn't sure what to make of Bofur yet, as he really hadn't much contact with him.

"Bombur! Bofur! Bifur! Why are you running?" A voice yelled from the distance.

Fíli lifted his head up to see that they had arrived at a site next to a river. There were about 15 carts set up around a campfire. Each cart appeared to have in front bed rolls, and various odds and ends that signaled nomads. He had found three members of a nomadic tribe of dwarves! Most likely, they had no idea who he was to Erebor, for he was certain Prince Fíli of Erebor was known throughout the major settlements of Middle Earth. This was perfect, he would never have to go back.

He felt two arms reach from behind him and take him away from Bifur. It was Bombur. He brought him over to one of the wagons, where a dwarrowdam and four dwarflings, all appearing to be around his and Kíli's age. He placed Fíli down with the dwarflings.

"Fíli, these are my children Eydis, Oydis, Eluf, Tyr, and my wife Ase." Bombur explained. "Children, start packing up the camp, we need to leave, Ase come with me."

The two adults made their way over to neighboring wagons to have them pack up. All four children began to pick up their belongings while Fíli picked up random pots.

"Who are you?" One of the lads asked.

Fíli looked at the other lad. He was about Kíli's age, with bright ginger hair and eyes the color of grass. He saw no harm of making friends, since he had a feeling he was going to be their new brother.

"My name is Fíli. Your father found me in Gap of Rohan."

All four children stopped what they were doing. An orphan! It was not uncommon for other families in their caravan to take in orphan children, but this was the first time that their family had done so.

"My name is Tyr!" The lad who initially asked Fíli his name was.

"My name is Eluf!" The other lad said, he appeared to closer to Fíli's age than Tyr but a bit younger. He had the same colored hair as Bofur, brown, and eyes as dark as night, just like Kíli. He, like Fíli had the beginnings of a beard.

"I'm Oydis!" The smallest lass said. She appeared to be the same age as Tyr, his twin perhaps. She had black eyes like Eluf and had the same grass green eyes as Tyr.

"My name is Eydis!" The oldest girl said. She might be a year or two older than Fíli. She had her mother's black hair and black eyes.

"Fíli, what's going on?" Eydis asked him.

Fíli saw no harm in telling them the truth. Even Kíli understood what wargs and orcs were.

"We believe we were followed by wargs we think," said Fíli, "we need to leave here!"

All four children nodded. They knew what that meant. Leaving the place they had been living for the past couple of months was going to be hard, but they had no choice.

Once again, a warg screamed in the distance. Oydis screamed. Fíli began to pick up the pace of throwing things into the wagon. He looked around and saw that mostly all the other wagons were packed. Next thing he knew he was being lifted by Bifur into the wagon. Tyr, Eluf, Eydis, and Oydis were put in by Bombur and Bofur. Bombur got to the front of the wagon and began to pull it as Bofur, Bifur and Ase walked alongside. The other wagons followed them towards an unknown destination.


	6. The Awakening

I have to apologize for this chapter. It's not one of my better ones.

* * *

"Kíli. Kíli. It's time to wake up sweetie," a female voice called out.

Who was calling him? He knew it was now time to open up his eyes, but that voice, whom did it belong to? Did he know that voice? Maybe it was time for him to wake up, but he did not remember falling asleep at all, what had happened to him? What was his name? Who was he?

"That's right, Kíli, come on," a male's voice cut in this time.

The dwarfling opened up his eyes, and immediately closed them again. Too bright, the torches that signaled that it was day were burning brightly in the room. The dwarfling groaned, and opened up his eyes again. He was lying in bed surrounded by faces of dwarves he did not seem to know. There was a dark-haired younger dwarrowdam standing in front of a slightly older salt-and-pepper haired dwarrowdam on one side of him. On the other side, stood an eldery dark-haired dwarrow wearing a crown standing next to a white haired elderly dwarrowdam. At the foot of the bed stood a middle-aged auburn haired dwarrow and a younger auburn-haired dwarrow.

None of the dwarves seemed to realize that he had woken up, but who were these people? Did he know them? Were some of them the ones who were speaking to him and calling him Kíli? The dwarfling whimpered catching the attention of all in the room.

"KÍLI, MY BABY!" the youngest dwarrowdam exclaimed as she reached down to hug him.

Afraid of the stranger he screamed, who was she grabbing him like that? Who were they all?

The dwarrowdam who grabbed him frowned and stood back up. "Kíli, you don't recognize me?"

He could only stare, as the dwarrowdam turned around and sobbed into the older dwarrowdam. The other dwarrowdam wrapped her arms around the younger. Something was wrong here thought the dwarfling, and the wrong thing was him. The dwarfling screamed again…

* * *

"Eydis, I'm scared," Oydis as another warg echoed in the distance.

Oydis pulled her sister into a hug as Bombur pulled the cart further and further. It was a very scary situation, thought Fíli. There was no safe place for the caravan to go without the chance of being caught by the wargs and eaten for the next meal. He turned his head to see Tyr sleeping in Eluf's lap. It should have been a peaceful sleep but every time the cart hit a bump Tyr winced in his sleep. That could not be comfortable. Fíli thought about helping Eluf share the weight of Tyr, but he did not think Ase would appreciate a mud covered Tyr. She already had to deal with muddy clothes from Bombur, Bofur, and Bifur, no thanks to Fíli. He really needed a bath, he had not had one since the night before he ran from Erebor. He could only imagine how he looked, he had not seen a reflection of himself in days. He could feel the mud on his face, in his hair, he could see his once blue tunic now night colored and torn in many places. He looked like a pauper, not a one-time prince. He smiled at the thought of his mother, what would she think of him now?

"Whoa!" someone shouted, Oydis, perhaps, as the cart hit a rock and the five dwarflings nearly found themselves out of the wagon.

There was a chain reaction of screams and whoas from behind them. As the dwarrow's stopped their carts short in order to prevent a crash.

"Is everyone okay back there?" Bofur shouted, while Bombur, Ase, and Bifur helped the dwarflings fix their belongings in the cart.

No one shouted back that they were in distress, that was a good thing, thought Fíli. But, now they were stopped, with wargs and orcs somewhere behind them, and they had no known destination in mind. Fíli had no idea where they even were. There was a running stream off to the right of them, to the left of them, but to the right of them was nothing but mountains. This couldn't be safe to stop for the night, or could it be? He didn't realize that some members of the caravan had gone until they came back with good news. They had found a large cave big enough for the entire caravan next to the stream. And the best news is that it wasn't that deep, as to prevent wandering dwarflings from being lost forever.

Fíli did not like that idea of stopping at all. It was not entirely impossible that his un…Thórin did not tell the people of Erebor that he was not wanted there anymore, and someone could come and try to take him back. He would not allow that, actually him being mud covered was a great thing, no one could recognize him! He was safe, at least from anyone recognizing him, the wargs however, that was a different story. He did not have much of a choice as Bombur led the caravan into the cave. It was not deep at all, it was more or less a large hole in a gigantic rock, but it would do for the night.

The cart was set down, and Bifur began to unload it with the help of Eluf and Oydis. Fíli went ahead to grab a blanket to hand to Bifur when hands grabbed him from behind and out of the cart.

"Hey!" he cried in protest, but it went unheeded.

He had no idea who had him or even where he was going, as he captor brought him to the other side of the wagon where Ase was putting things into a basket. He was placed on his feet next to her.

"Here is he, Love," said Bombur (who had obviously been his captor) as he bent down to kiss Ase.

"Thank you, Bombur, I can handle him from here."

Fíli gulped what did she mean handle?

* * *

Ever since they had found Fíli's torn shirt Thórin had not lifted his head up from the ground. This was not looking good, and he knew that it was all his fault. Now he had no one to even talk to or walk next to. Legolas and Tauriel walked with Thráin, Víli, and Frérin up front, while he walked way behind the dwarven and elven guards accompanying the group.

He was not part of this company any longer, actually he was never a part of it. Thórin was not invited to join in the search as he was the one who ran after the party in search of Fíli, and he was beginning to regret it. He should have gone off on his own and not be a part of a company that did not want any part of him. Thórin was sure that his father, brother, and brother-in-law were finished with him, and if he were honest with himself, he was done with them as well. He had to make this right, had to right this wrong. No one would notice him missing, and he did not think anyone would care.

The company came to a fork in the path, one path led towards the Misty Mountains, and the other, the Gap of Rohan. Thórin stopped just behind the company. He watched as Legolas bent his head to discuss something with his father, and then they took the path that led to the mountains. He looked around and found a rock to sit on, he wasn't going to leave this area for a while. He waited until the last guard was out of his eyesight, which took nearly an hour. Thórin leapt off the rock and began his journey towards the other path, the path that led to the Gap of Rohan. He was going to make this right.

_Fíli, I'm coming for you_, Thórin thought to himself.

* * *

"Go away!" Kíli yelled at Narvi, the healer, who had once again came into his room to check on him.

It was very scary for the dwarfling who quickly learned that his name was Kíli, after what seemed like forever that day. He had no idea who he was, save his name, where he was, and who his family was. The black haired dwarrowdam who had grabbed him earlier that day had not come back after the older one took her out of the room after he had screamed. But, there was something familiar about her, something very familiar. He wished he could remember.

The only one in the room with him at that moment was the older dwarrow with the crown. He was sitting in a chair that was placed alongside his bed. He wondered if he was some kind of leader, since Kíli had woken up, no less than five dwarrows who were wearing robes came in and spoke to him. Kíli wished he could remember who he was, he seemed very important not only to those who came in, but to Kíli as well.

The older dwarrow saw Kíli staring at him. He stood up and sat down on the edge of the bed.

"Do you know who I am?" Thrór asked him?

Kíli whispered, "No."

Thrór frowned at that. He bent down so his face was just over Kíli's. Kíli did not feel frightened though. He felt like he could trust him, that is why he wasn't so shocked when Thrór kissed him on the top of the head.

"My poor, poor boy. My little Kíli, you don't deserve this. You don't deserve any of this. I only wish you would remember us, your mother, your grandmother, your great-grandmother, me. Even your cousins. I only wish your father, uncles, and brother were here. Fíli would help you, I know he would. But it's all Thórin's fault why he's not, and why your like this." Thror whispered.

Kíli's eyes opened up wide at that. Who were these people the dwarrow mentioned, and was the dwarrow sitting next to him family?

"Who are you?" Kíli whispered, not trusting his voice at the moment.

The dwarrow looked like he was about to cry, and for an elder to cry, something must be very wrong.

"I'm your great-grandfather, Kíli. Your mother's father's father."

Kíli was in shock, so he did the only thing that seemed to get people of the room. He screamed…

* * *

Fíli whimpered as Ase dunked his head underneath the stream, it was cold! Handling turned out to be a bath, his first in a number of days. He was finally getting the mud that had caked all over him. She was really working her fingers through his curly hair, it must be very tangled.

"Ow!"

"I'm sorry sweetie, that was very knotted up, I have to tug the mud out."

Fíli smiled to himself, she called him sweetie, just like Dís used to. This might work itself out after all.

Ase rubbed something into his hair that smelt like wet grass and summer flowers. But, it was January, or was it February now, why did it smell like flowers? She ran his head underneath the stream again.

"Almost got your hair clean, Fíli. You didn't tell us you have blonde hair, thought it was black." Ase said.

Uh oh, thought Fíli, someone could recognize him.

Ase finished up with his hair and began to scrub his body with soap. He laughed, that really tickled. Ase realized he was laughing, and began to laugh as well. She put the soap down on the ground and tickled his tummy. The harder Fíli laughed, the harder Ase laughed.

"Got you!" Ase said as she placed Fíli completely into the stream.

"Ahh! Cold!" Fíli screamed.

Ase dunked him in a couple of more times. "All done!" she exclaimed as she wrapped a towel around him.

Fíli smiled, for the first time in days he felt like himself again. Could he ever be himself again though. Ase allowed him to dry himself off , before turning around and handing him an old tunic of Bombur's. He was bigger than Eluf, despite being the same age. He took after his uncle and grandfather in that respect. All of the sudden Ase gasped. Fíli turned his head towards her, she was holding her hand over his mouth.

"Whats wrong?" Fíli asked as he realize she was holding leggings for him.

"Your, your Prince Fíli of Erebor!"

Fíli's only thought was _she knows_…


	7. The Dog

A/N: Another chapter I am not proud of. But I did clear up some plot holes I created.

* * *

"How, what, why?" were Fíli's only words he could say as he looked up at her.

It must have been a comical sight in the mid-February afternoon. A half-naked dwarfling looking up at a dwarrowdam who had leggings in one hand and was holding her other hand over her mouth. But, how did she recognize him, he didn't remember ever meeting her, or hearing anyone mention her name. Surely someone, his parents, uncles, cousins, grandparents, great-grandparents would have mentioned a dwarrowdam named Ase, but no one.

Either Mahal was on his side or some other luck but the snow that had been threatening all day started to fall. Flakes were dancing in the grey sky and were landing on his wet hair, and on his nose. Fíli reached an arm up to wipe away a flake that had landed on the tip of his nose. It was that action that finally awoke Ase out of her stupor. She finally dropped her hand, handed Fíli the leggings, and helped him put them on.

She curtsied in front of him. "I'm sorry I didn't recognize you before, my prince."

Fíli looked down at the ground. He did not know what to say or do. What would uncle Thórin do in this case? What would Grandfather do, or even Great-Grandfather? He was taught from a young age when he was not in Erebor or in Mirkwood try not to let anyone know who you really are, no matter what race they are. He was trying his hardest not to let his new family know who he really is, but how did he slip? How did she even recognize him? The wind pushed his once again golden curls in front of his face. Oh yea, that, he was the only dwarfling of any status that had golden curly hair, a gift from his great-grandmother (the curls) and his father (the golden color).

"Uh, I'm not a Prince anymore," replied Fíli quickly and solemly, looking down at the ground.

There was a silence as snowflakes continued their waltz from the sky painting the ground white. Fíli could only look at the white that was quickly growing beneath his feet. It was peaceful if not for Ase there and Fíli feeling horrified at the entire situation. He wished for a second that someone would come for him and take him home, at least he would not be standing there in the snow wondering how he blew his cover like that.

"Amad! Amad!" two voices cut through the silence.

Fíli lifted his head, glad for the interruption, even if it was not the rescue he wanted. It was Eluf and EyDís whom both looked horrified.

Ase was probably thinking along the same lines. "What's wrong my loves?"

"Adad told us to come find you and Fíli. One of the scouts came back and said the wargs were catching up. We need to go," said EyDís.

Ase nodded at her children, for Bombur to send their two oldest children, who were fast runners, this has to be a serious matter. Wargs are no laughing matter to begin with, they had to be really close if EyDís and Eluf were told to run. She gestured for Eluf to clean up and take the basket. EyDís ran ahead followed by Eluf. Fíli was about to follow but was stopped by Ase.

"This is not over your highness," she whispered.

Fíli gulped, what did she mean by that? Did he even want to know?

* * *

"Wuuf! Wuuf!" the sound of a barking dog shocked Thórin, he thought he was all alone out here.

Snow was falling, dancing all around him. He was now two days down the trail, two days since he broke off from the search party. To be honest with himself, he actually felt better than he had since this whole event started. There was no one around to remind him of the wrong that he did, and there was no one around to make him feel isolated and alienated. He had a feeling that if remained on the path he was on he would find some trace of Fíli, another lock of hair, a second piece of ripped shirt. Hopefully, his nephew himself.

"Wuff! Wuff!" a dog barked again, this time sounding very close to Thórin.

"Hello?" Thórin said aloud.

The grass on the left side of the trail ruffled, and out came a mutt. It was not a very big mutt, but it was just large enough to knock a dwarfling off his feet. Thórin did not feel frightened of this dog, despite having a fear of dogs since Dís brought one home when she was Fíli's age and the dog jumped on his back and ripped his shirt. The dog sat down blocking his path looking up at him. No, he (how did he know it was a he?) did not feel threatening at all. Why was he wishing that this dog could take him to Fíli? He knew that most animals don't understand Khuzdûl or Common Tongue, but why was he thinking he had to at least try?

"Can you take me to my nephew?" he asked the dog in Common Tongue?

"Wuff! Wuff!" was his only response.

"Can you take me to my nephew, Fíli?" This time he tried in Khuzdûl.

This time the dog growled. _Well that was a success_, thought Thórin. "I guess you can't help me then. Can you at least move so I can pass?" he asked in Common Tongue.

"Wuff! Wuff!" the dog would not move.

Thórin stood there staring back at the dog, when a hand landed on his shoulder scaring the poor prince right out of his skin. Thórin turned around to see an elf standing there, Thranduil. He gave Thranduil his infamous what is going on here looks.

"New friend?" Thranduil asked.

Thórin chuckled, his first in nearly a month. "Haha, Thranduil, making friends with a dog? Me? That's funny." Thórin sighed. "He came out of the grass, and is now officially the roadblock."

"We've been following this trail for about a day and a half. We got a glimpse of you yesterday but only did we realize it was you when you stopped here," Thranduil replied, answering Throin's unspoken question.

"Wuff! Wuff!" the dog barked again.

"I'm starting to get really angry at that dog." Thórin muttered.

"He does seem like he does not want to move," replied Thranduil, "Let me try."

"Can you move so we can pass?" Thranduil said in Sindarin.

"Wuff! Wuff! Wuff!"

Thórin smiled a true smile. "At least you got one more bark than me."

Thranduil shook his head. "Can you move so we can pass?" He tried again, this time in Quenya.

"Wuff! Wuff! Wuff! Wuff! Grrrrrr!"

"He did not like that, Thranduil," said Thórin.

And just like that, the dog stopped barking. Something had startled it. Now that the dog had calmed down, Thranduil had time to really look at the dog. He did not seem to be threatening. Perhaps that's what Thórin was thinking. It was strange, the more Thranduil stared at the dog, the stronger the feeling was that the dog knew something about Fíli than what was meeting the eye. He had no time to voice that to Thórin when an all too familiar sound of a warg cut the impromptu meeting short. That's what the dog had heard. Both king and prince of allied kingdoms nodded at one another, they were most likely heading towards battle whether they liked it or not. Before Thranduil was able to give the order for his guards to follow himself and Thórin the dog got up without a bark or a whimper and walked off into the woods.

"That what was one strange dog," one of his guards muttered behind him.

Thranduil could only nod as the newly formed war party moved along the unblocked path.

* * *

Dís stood in front of a familiar closed door. She wanted to enter that room so badly, she needed to enter the room, but she knew the occupant would not want that. The occupant would not want to see her. The occupant would not even know who she was to him, his own mother. Her 15-year-old dwarfling was hurt and scared and her eldest was missing, no thanks to her oldest brother. How she longed to hold both her boys in her arms. She never had the chance to talk to Fíli after this incident before he had ran away, and Kíli did not even know her.

She went to place her hand on the doorknob but pulled back as tears she was holding back for hours now fell, as her cries took her to the floor. She missed her boys, her husband, her father, even her brothers as angry as she was with Thórin at the present, and her tears reflected that longing. She was not sure who she was crying for more about, Fíli, Kíli, or someone else. What was she going to do if Kíli never remembered her, or if Víli, her father, brothers, and guards came back without Fíli, and she never saw her golden haired son again? She knew she could not think that way, she refused to think that way. Kíli would eventually snap out of it, and eventually Víli was going to walk through the gate with Fíli, safe and whole. She would not think the other way.

"Dís?" a male voice whispered, causing her to look up.

It was Dáin, with a caring look in his eyes. Dís had always been close to Dáin growing up; he was like a third brother to her, the one she could always go to for problems. Frérin was too wild, part of the reason why Fíli was named Thórin's heir and Frérin skipped over in the succession, and Thórin was always to serious or busy. That left Dáin.

"The floor is cold, you won't be helping anyone if you catch a cold," said Dáin offering his cousin a hand.

Dís accepted the hand, and allowed Dáin to help her to her feet. "What am I going to do if no one comes back to me, Dáin?" Dís whispered as Dáin pulled her into a brotherly embrace.

Dáin looked at the closed door. "You can't think like that, Dís. You have to believe everything will work out, even if I have to run out there myself and find everyone. Things will be fine."

Dís pulled back from the embrace. "Thank you, Dáin. Let's go see my son, maybe grandfather made progress."

Dís finally opened the door and walked in. She did not notice Dáin's hesitation. "I hope I'm right." He whispered to no one in particular.

* * *

"Thórin! Fíli! Where are you?" Víli yelled.

"Thórin!" shouted Frérin.

"Fíli, Thórin!" Tauriel shouted the loudest an elf could shout.

This was entirely hopeless thought Thráin. Here they were somewhere in the Misty Mountains, in which they thought they were looking for his missing grandson. Now, not only were they looking for Fíli, they were looking for Thórin as well. Thráin could not believe it took them, the royal family, the dwarven guards and their elven allies a full day before they realized Thórin was no longer following them.

_Thráin was leading the search party up through the Misty Mountains, along snow covered paths and numerous caves. He was beginning to fear the worst about his grandson, he did not want to be the one to stumble upon a body, it had been about a month. Thráin turned around a bend and came to a part where they would have to walk single file. He was about to take the first step when a cry came from the elven guard._

_Legolas came running towards him. "Thráin, none of my guards have seen Thórin in about a day. They don't know if he took another path or what." _

_Thráin fell to his knees. What had he done? In all of his anger with his son, he did the one thing he did not want to do since his eldest was born, alienated him from his own family. Now he was no longer with them. This was not good. Now they had two missing family members. His father was not going to be happy with this situation. _

"_We need to go back. We have to find him," he said to Legolas. _

"_Turn around!" Legolas shouted, as he ran back to the guard. "Turn around, we have another one to look for now." _

That was yesterday. Thráin was really beginning to regret his words in Mirkwood and his coldness in Dale towards Thórin. They had not seen any sign of Fíli or of Thórin in a full day. Thráin knew they had to find both of them; this was a huge mess that needed to be sorted out. He turned his head to see the Lonely Mountain in the Dístance. He only hoped Kíli was awake and okay. But why did he have a feeling that things were not all good there? Why did he have a feeling his whole family was falling apart?


	8. Attack!

Dís and Dáin were greeted by the sound of Kíli screaming at his great-grandfather. It seemed like no progress was made by Thrór at all. Dís paused just inside the doorway of Kíli's room; it was almost as if the snow and ice outside had frozen her feet to the ground. She could not move on, as much as she wanted to. Something was holding her back. She somehow found the will to take a step backwards but was met by a soft wall that grunted slightly, Dáin.

"Remember what we talked about, Dís." Dáin whispered, putting his hand on her shoulder.

Dís nodded as Dáin pushed her towards the edge of Kíli's bed.

"Hello, granddaughter, hello nephew," Thrór said as Dís and Dáin crossed into his vision.

"More screaming, Uncle?" Dáin asked, referring to what Dís and himself had heard when they walked into the room.

Thror looked at Kíli who had stopped screaming, only to find Kíli looking past him and at Dís. He could swear that he saw recognition there. Could Kíli finally be remembering someone? That someone being his own mother?

Thror got up from the bed and walked over to where Dís and Dáin stood. "He screamed when I told him who I was to him," he said just loud enough for only Dís and Dáin could hear him.

Dáin nodded at that statement, which is how it was lately since Kíli had woken up. Whenever someone walked into the room and reintroduced himself or herself to him, he would scream, whether it be healer, guard, cook, or advisor. Though Dáin was sad to admit Thror was the first family member to tell Kíli who he was to him, and that was just today. Actually, Thror was really the only regular visitor Kíli had. He had made it a point to be with Kíli throughout all of this. Thrór would sit with Kíli even when he was unconscious, not caring what was going on in Erebor or the outside world.

Thror left the room, leaving Dís and Dáin alone with Kíli for the first time in days. Dís looked at her son, who never dropped his eyes from her since she had walked into the room.

"Do I know you?" A soft voice asked, practically inaudible despite the silence in the room.

Dís raised her hands to her mouth with a small cry just as Dáin put a comforting hand on her back.

"Kee," Dís whispered.

"I know I should know you, but I can't," the dwarfling on the bed began to cry.

Dís dropped her hands. "Kíli, don't cry, Mama's here," Dís said through tears of her own.

Dís could see the confusion on Kíli's face. In that moment something changed in him, Dís didn't know what it was, but she knew her youngest better than anyone else, perhaps everyone save Fíli. The blank stare he had since she walked into the room now changed to one of confusion.

"Mama?" Kíli asked hesitantly.

She knew Kíli still had no idea who she was, but that was all it took as she fell onto Kíli's bed, grabbing the startled dwarfling and crying into his shoulder. For once, Kíli did not scream.

* * *

Fíli walked behind Eydis and Eluf trying to catch up with them. He was thoroughly confused about Ase how did she know him? He had never met her before in his life! Fíli was missing something important, he knew that much. Ase said that this was not over, he wanted to know everything. Perhaps if he ever saw Unc-Thórin again he would ask him, for Thórin never denied him anything, except for that one day.

The all too familiar sound of a warg cut through the air.

"Run!" Ase yelled from behind them.

"I'm running as fast as I can, Amad!" Eydis yelled back.

"Me too, Amad!" Eluf said.

Fíli only ran faster, as another warg yelled, getting closer now. This was now getting serious, those wargs had been following him ever since the night he had first met Bombur, Bofur, and Bifur. That felt like a lifetime ago, in reality it had only been days. All of the sudden he felt himself falling through the air, as his boot met something buried in the snow, and he did not stop until his entire face was in snow. This was getting old very quickly; had Kíli been with him this whole time he would have been laughing at him at the number of times he had fallen ever since he had left. A hand pulled him up to his feet.

"Your Highness, this is no time to be falling!" Ase said quietly pulling him along with her.

"I'm not a prince anymore!" Fíli said back to her angrily.

Ase said nothing as the cave the caravan was in came back into view. The dwarves were quickly putting their belongings away that had been taken out in the short time they had been in the cave. Tyr ran over to them out of breath.

"Adad wants us to leave now, Amad!" he said to Ase.

The scream of a warg yelled back at him. Eydis looked visibly shaken at that, that was very close at this point, and it sounded like more than one.

Ase making up her mind, pushed the four children towards the cave, and Bombur, who was throwing various objects up to Oydis in the wagon. Bofur and Bifur were helping other families in the caravan. Eluf ran over to the wagon, threw the basket over the top and climbed in. He turned around and grabbed Tyr as Eydis handed him over to him. Fíli helped Eydis into the wagon and then climbed in himself.

"Were all here, Adad!" Eluf yelled.

"Good! Let's get out of…" Bombur could not finish the sentence.

An arrow sailed through the air and nearly hit him in the head. It was of orcish make. They were trapped, fighting was now the only option. Bombur reached back into the wagon and grabbed a long mining pick, which he tossed over to Bofur. Bifur came over and took a long spear, which Fíli did not realize was even in the wagon. Bombur then reached back in and took out a long ladle, which Fíli could have sworn he saw Bombur cook with back at the campfire. All three ran to the front of the cave to defend the caravan.

Little Oydis screamed as another arrow sailed through the air. This was getting very scary, thought Fíli. He had no idea how many wargs and orcs were out there, all he could hear was the sound of wargs screaming, and a mixture of Common Tongue, Khudûl, and the Black Speech. Fíli could only watch as the dwarves held the line, not letting any orcs reach them, just like the Gates of Erebor. Nothing could get through them, Great-Grandfather made sure of that. A tear fell down from Fíli's eyes, as more arrows came their way. For the first time since he followed Kíli into the Forbidden Room, he wanted to go home, not just to the mountain. He was scared, frightened, and just wanted his Mama, Papa, and Uncle Thórin. He wanted Kíli, Uncle Frérin, Grandfather, Grandmother, Cousin Dáin, Great Uncle Náin, even Great-Grandfather and Great-Grandfather. He just wanted to go home and away from this scary situation. Fíli could not stop the tears from falling.

"Amad!" A cry went up from the front of the wagon.

Ase had found a sword and was running towards battle, for the orcs had broken through the line and were now in the cave. Fíli knew he had to do something; he had to protect Eluf, Eydis, Oydis, and Tyr, as well as himself. He looked around and saw that the cave was no dead end, there was light, and snow coming down an opening in the top just big enough for the dwarflings to climb through. There were also rocks big enough to climb up leading to the top, snow covered, but not enough to be slippery. The orcs were very close to them now, it was only a matter of moments before they were lunch.

It was time to act like the prince that he truly was. He tapped Eluf and Eydis on the shoulder and pointed to the opening. Eluf picked up Tyr, while he picked up Oydis and all of them jumped off the wagon just as a warg slammed into it ricocheting it back into the wall. Oydis made a move to scream again, but Fíli covered her mouth, as they ran to the rock ladder. Tyr went up first as Eluf placed him on the rocks. Fíli followed suit with Oydis. Eydis followed them, then Eluf, and finally Fíli. It was a harder climb than it looked but all five of them made it up and out of the cave. They found themselves looking at a forest, not the way they came, but a different one. It was not Mirkwood either. Fíli did not have time to stop and think about it as an orc riding on a warg came up from behind them opening up its mouth and yelling at the top of its lungs. This time Oydis did scream, loudly, and it echoed all throughout the immediate area. It was enough to scare the warg away. Fíli let out a breath he did not know he was holding, as the five of them ran into the mysterious forest.

* * *

The sound of a battle hit both Throin and Thranduil at the same time. It did not sound good, it was the sound of arrows hitting solid rock, which meant someone, or something was surrounded. A warg shrieked followed by the sound of a child screaming put the war party at full attention. It was never good when orcs and wargs were involved.

"Fíli?" Thranduil asked Thórin.

Thórin shook his head. "Sounded like a lass. Not good either way."

Thranduil pulled out his sword, and his guards followed suit. Even if Fíli was not with whoever was being attacked, it was still the duty of the free people of Middle Earth to defeat the beings of Mordor. It was a time out from searching, and a time in to battle. Thranduil held up his sword and led the guards towards the battle. Thórin held back, he could not go into battle now, his golden-haired nephew was somewhere out in this world, and it was his fault. Another scream sounded in the distance; that was all the motivation Throin needed. He unsheathed his sword and followed the elves towards the battle sounds.

Thórin was greeted by a large cave next to a stream he did not even realize was there. There was Thranduil and guards fighting a large group of orcs and wargs that had to number fifty. To his surprise, there was a group of dwarves fighting them as well. These dwarves were clearly not of Erebor based on the simple way they were dressed. He had to help his own people! Thórin ran towards the heat of the battle and began to attack the wargs.

_Swish, swish, slice, _went Thórin's sword as he won his battle with an orc. He yelled a battle cry as he went onto the next orc. It was not long with the help of the elves and Thórin to exterminate the small group of wargs. Now that all was calm Thórin was able to get a good look at the dwarves, whom none were lost in the skirmish, thank Mahal. They were dirty, and dressed simply. In the fading light of day, he looked inside the cave, and saw women, children, belongings, and broken wagons everywhere. He had stumbled upon a caravan of nomadic dwarves! His tutors had always told him that they were out there, he had never encountered them before, but here they were! They were what one of his tutors explained to him as a "Lost Tribe".

A large auburn haired dwarf came over to him, breaking the ice. "I, on behalf of the caravan, thank you for coming to our aid. We are forever in your debt."

Thranduil came up, and answered for him. It made sense; a king would always outrank a prince. "It was the least we can do, Master Dwarf. What happened here?"

"We were chased by this group of wargs for days, ever since my brother, cousin and I found an orphan dwarfling on the Gap of Rohan. They finally caught up with us today."

Thórin thought for a second, an orphan? Fíli wouldn't, would he, especially what Thórin said to him? "Orphan, what did he look like?" Thórin blurted out.

Bombur looked confused. "How did you know it was a lad I found? I never told you."

Thranduil looked down on Thórin, no way; it could not be this easy, could it?

Thórin had to answer, the more eyes he had looking the better. "My nephew ran away from home after an accident. I yelled at him and practically disowned him. I'm trying to find him."

Bombur frowned at the dwarf. Between the contingent of elves and the mysterious dwarf, this was getting very strange, and he had a feeling it all linked back to Fíli. He did not have time to answer for Ase came running out of the cave.

"Bombur! Their gone, Eydis, Eluf, Oydis, Tyr, and Fíli! Their gone!"

"What?" Bombur said.

"The children! Their gone! The wagon is tipped over, and I can't find them anywhere, no sign of them!" Ase yelled.

Thórin blinked, he knew that dwarrowdam, and she was forbidden from being anywhere near the royal family.

"Ase?" Thórin asked drawing her attention away from her husband.

Ase smiled facetiously. "Ah, Prince Thórin of Erebor. Second in line to the throne. And King Thranduil of the Woodland Realm. What brings you to the wilderness?"

"I thought your grandfather banished her a long time ago," Thranduil muttered to Thórin.

"He did," Thórin said aloud, "it was just our luck that we find her here." Thórin paused, "And did you say Fíli? As in…?" Thórin could not finish the sentence as he fell to his knees.

"Ase?" Bombur asked as Bofur and Bifur came out to stand next to him.

"Yes, I did Thórin. Your nephew, as well as my and Bombur's four children are the ones who are currently missing."

Thórin fell face first into the snow. How much more of this can he take?


	9. Reunited Yet Not

"I don't think you scared off the warg, Oydis," Eluf said as they heard the warg scream again.

Fíli could only agree as he pushed Oydis and Eluf along deeper into the woods. Eydis and Tyr were in front of them running for their lives, actually they all were. The warg and its rider that had found them on top of the cave was following them, or Fíli assumed, as they kept hearing screaming and the sound of arrows shooting. This was not good, they were going to be lunch. He was never going to see his family again, never be able to play tag with Kíli or learn to be a prince with Uncle Thórin, as much as he knew his uncle hated him. He, and his new family were going to be lunch for a warg and neither him nor Eluf had even grown a full beard in yet. What a way to go.

"_If you hear a warg, head up into a tree,"_a voice cut through his head, causing him to stop.

Eluf, realizing Fíli has stopped running turned around to see him. "Fíli, we have to keep going! It's going to get us!"

Fíli did not hear Eluf, all he kept hearing was a voice in his head, his uncle's voice, _"head up into a tree, head up into a tree, head up into a tree..."_

"Head up into a tree!" Fíli yelled, getting the attention of Eydis who quickly gathered the two younger ones to her and Fíli.

"A tree, Fíli, are you sure?" Eydis asked, that did not sound right, did not sound right at all.

Fíli nodded with an air of authority. Eydis thought that there was something strange about Fíli, like he had lied to them. There was just something about him that screamed that he was more than a mere orphan, and that she had to listen to him.

"My uncl-Thor-someone once told me that if I ever heard a warg, head up into a tree and wait for someone to come and find me," Fíli answered.

Eydis shared a look with Eluf, it was worth a try, it had to be better than running for it.

"But which tree?" Eluf asked.

They were in a forest, a very dark forest with lots of trees. Fíli looked around, he saw a tree that had two branches close enough to the ground where a dwarfling could jump up and grab ahold of it. Said dwarfling could then proceed to pull themselves up to the top. Yes, that tree would do just fine.

"That one!" he said, pointing to it.

The warg screamed again, getting close to them again. It was now or never.

Fíli ran over to it and jumped up first and took a hold of Oydis as Eluf handed her to him. Oydis started to climb up high. He then proceeded to do the same thing to Tyr, who followed his sister. Fíli followed behind. He looked down to see Eydis and Eluf climbing up. Each one of them found a separate branch on top of the tree. The branches did not look sturdy enough to hold two of them, but one of them looked okay.

The warg yelled a third time followed by what sounded like another one. _Great, two of them now_, thought Fíli. There was heavy breathing from all of them, as they tried to catch their breaths. Fíli held up his finger to his lips, they needed to remain as silent as possible.

Eydis broke the silence with a gasp as not one, nor two, but five wargs and riders stepped into their vision. Fíli gave her a startled look, he was not sure if wargs could climb trees, and he did not want to find out by being lunch. One of the orcs yelled out to the other three in black speech and they went off into the opposite direction from which they came. They were safe for now, Fíli let out a breath he did not know he was holding.

"Fíli, can we go down now? I'm scared," asked Tyr.

"Me too, Fíli," Oydis replied.

Fíli shared a look with Eluf and Eydis, they could not stay in the tree forever, and the orcs did look like they were running away from them. All three of them nodded at the same time. Fíli, being the one on the lowest branch headed down first, and before long all five of them were on the ground. On the lowest branch Tyr had caught his shirt and it had ripped leaving a bit of brown cloth on the branch. It was a very minor thing, since Tyr was a growing dwarfling, it probably would not be missed. _Thank Mahal none of them were scared_, thought Fíli. That would have driven the orcs back.

Eydis knelt down and checked Oydis and Tyr for any injuries, while Eluf stood slightly off the side. Fíli looked around the forest, with his head held high and arms crossed lightly, a position he always took during lessons with Uncle Thórin and Great-Grandfather. They were hopelessly lost, he had no idea which way they had come from or even which way the caravan was. He had led a small group into getting lost, at least they were not a warg's lunch, that has to count for something. Fíli did not know what to do, which way?

He did not realize that Eydis had stood up and was now looking at him. "Okay, Fíli, I've played your game long enough. What is with you? You don't look like a common orphan who was wandering around Middle Earth for a while."

Fíli winced, she was on to him. He was not ready to tell them the truth that he was a runaway rejected prince; third in line after his uncle to the throne of Erebor. Yes, that was not going to fly at all with him. Eydis crossed her arms looking at him angrily. He did not realize the others were now looking at him as well. He also did not realize Oydis's eyes filling with fear, as he was grabbed from behind and lifted up onto a warg. There was no time to warn the others as Eydis screamed as she was lifted onto another warg he turned his head to see Oydis and Tyr on another warg. The orc behind him yelled out to the others, Fíli gasped in fear. Eluf was on another warg that stepped out from the trees. They were captured.

Fíli mentally slapped himself, in all of the excitement, he had forgotten the second part of what Uncle Thórin had always told him, "_If you hear a warg, head up into a tree, and wait for rescue, someone will always come."_ Once again he had failed to keep someone safe, and this time he himself was mixed up in it. _I'm sorry Kíli that I wasn't a better older brother to you_, _and Uncle Thórin, I'm sorry for everything, I hope you still love me_ he thought as the warg took him deeper into the forest.

* * *

Narvi walked into Kíli's room to see a sight he wanted to see for a very long time, Kíli letting his mother hold him. Lord Dáin stood off to the side, and gestured the healer to come closer.

"It isn't what we want, but at least he's not screaming." Dáin said.

"Did he remember her?" Narvi asked.

"Doesn't seem like it," Dáin replied, "it might just be Kíli putting a puzzle together."

Narvi sighed; it was a start. "I'm here to see if Kíli might want to get out of bed, and walk around."

"That would be good," a voice said from the bed. Dís. "He is always moving, I don't like seeing my little one not moving."

"What can we do to help?" A voice said from the door. It was King Thrór, behind him was his wife, his daughter-in-law, and Náin.

"Come here, I don't want Kíli to hear this, asleep as he may seem to be, he's probably faking it." Narvi said getting questioning glares. "You'd be surprised how many times I've caught most of you doing it when you've been under my care."

Everyone gathered around Narvi, including Dís, who had to pry herself from Kíli's arms. He had indeed cried himself to sleep. "I want everyone to treat him normally. Pretend the accident never happened, and those that are missing are just out if he asks about them. I also don't want him walking around alone. Make sure there's someone at least shadowing him, he can have a relapse at any time."

Getting nods from the royal family he went over to Kíli's bed and shook him softly. "Kíli, its time to wake up, don't you want to take a walk with your mama?"

Kíli groaned, as he opened up his eyes. He opened up his mouth as to scream but changed his mind. He would not mind getting out of bed at this point. "Okay." He said.

Kíli made to roll out of bed, but stopped, he didn't want to walk around wearing just a long tunic.

"Kíli, whats's wrong?" Dís asked noticing her son stopping.

He looked at 'mama', maybe she can help him. "I'm not wearing any clothes."

Thrór laughed behind her, "Grandfather." She said through clinched teeth. She quickly changed her tone while addressing her son. "Yes, sweetie, I can help you with that."

She said as she went over to the wardrobe and picked out Kíli's favorite blue tunic with his emblem on it, and a pair of leggings. She sat next to him on the bed, blocking her family from helping her do a motherly duty, and helped Kíli into the outfit she had picked out for him. Dís stood looking for his boots. Frérin had pulled them off when he initially put Kíli into his bed that day, but where did he put them?

"What are you looking for Dís?" Nain asked, noticing she was looking for something.

"My boots!" Kíli yelled, answering for his mother.

"Kíli!" Dís exclaimed, did her son remember something?

"My boots, they're over there! Said Kíli, pointing to the boots laid out nicely next to the door, a place easily missed if one did not know they were there.

"Kíli, do you?" Dís began but was interrupted.

"I remembered something! My boots!" Kíli yelled loudly.

The rest of the family quickly came over to Kíli congratulating him on remembering something, even though it was not them. It was something. Things were looking up.

* * *

Legolas squinted, he could have sworn he saw a flash of golden hair like his own in the distance, next to a cave. It looked very familiar. They had been backtracking by running their own tracks until they came to a fork in the path. Thráin and Legolas had collaborated and had concluded that Thórin had taken the other path, which they were now following. A loud gasp from behind pulled him back to the group.

He found Tauriel, Víli, and Frérin standing over what looked like a footprint in the snow. It was hard to tell since it was almost snowed over again. Thráin was standing just over to the side holding something small.

"This looks like my brother-in-law's footprint," said Víli. "He always had a bigger foot than me."

Legolas and Tauriel shared a look, it had to be a dwarf thing. Legolas turned to Thráin, who was visibly shaking in the snow. Legolas walked closer to see Thráin was holding a single strand of dark hair, how he had found that, he would never know. The dark hair could only belong to one dwarf, Thórin. At that point, Legolas knew that Thráin had forgiven his son for causing Fíli to run, he was acting the part of a concerned father, he knew that, because he had walked in on his own numerous times like this when he came home late from Erebor or hunting spiders in Mirkwood. Legolas put his hand on Thráin's shoulder, it was a source of comfort from one crown prince to another, from a good friend and ally to another. Thráin looked up and smiled a true smile at Legolas, and nodded. No words were needed.

There was a tap on his shoulder so he turned his head. It was Tauriel, with two elven and two dwarven guards behind her, who obviously look like they have scouted ahead, he made a mental note to thank her later for doing that. He removed his hand from Thráin's shoulder. "Legolas, the scouts I sent came back and said they saw your father with a bunch of dwarves by the cave over there."

That got the attention of Legolas and the entire royal family of Erebor in attendance. "Take us there," Thráin said surprising Legolas who did not think that Thráin was capable of speech at that point.

"Yes my Prince," one of the dwarven guards answered, as he led the group to the cave.

"Ada!" Legolas yelled as he saw Thranduil with his guards talking to three male and one female dwarf.

Thranduil turned and to see Legolas and his search party running towards him. Thranduil held out a hand to stop Legolas, he did not see Thórin lying face down in the snow and had nearly stepped on him.

"Thórin!" Legolas yelled.

Thórin moaned. Who was yelling his name? He was not doing Fíli any good lying face down in the snow, that much was for sure. Thórin stood up, and was nearly tackled back down by a concerned father. Thráin held his son in a tight hug, "Don't you ever do that again. You have no idea how scary that was."

Thórin hugged his father back, it felt good to have someone touch him again after what felt like so long. He felt a touch on his back, it was Frérin. "Hi, baby brother," Thórin muttered into his father's shoulder.

He knew that Víli was there as well, but out of everyone in the world, it was Víli and Dís that had every right to still be mad at him for he did to their sons. Thórin did not think unless he came back with Fíli whole and uninjured Víli and Dís would never speak to him again.

Fíli! Thórin pulled back from his father. "Adad, these dwarves found Fíli and now he and four other dwarflings are missing after an orc attack."

"What?" Víli screamed as he came next to Thórin, and gasped as he noticed someone he had not seen in a while. "Ase!"

Thráin looked over to the dwarves facing them. It was indeed the traitor and evil Ase, whom Thror had banished the day after Fíli was born, and she was not allowed to be anywhere near the royal family.

"What are you doing here?" Víli asked.

"My husband found your son, and now your son and my four children are missing, all of whom are younger than Fíli by the way," Ase answered slyly.

Before Víli could answer, Frérin came around Thráin and began to walk towards Ase but two hands went out blocking his path belonging to Thráin and Thórin. "Adad, Thórin!" he winced.

"No Frérin, you know what she did to you and you are not permitted to see her," Thráin said.

"But Adad, she's my best friend!" Frérin said in his defense, "And she obviously had contact with Fíli!"

Ase stared at Frérin, and both nodded in agreement, and Frérin stood down walking back to stand with the guards, missing the fact that Bombur went over to Ase to grab her hand. In the reunion, some of the dwarves from the caravan came over to Bombur and handed him a piece of cloth.

"Ase, look," Bombur said handing her the cloth.

Ase gasped. "What's wrong?" Thráin asked angrily, drawing the attention of Thranduil who was speaking with Legolas and Tauriel.

She waved the cloth in the air, "This is a piece of the shirt Tyr was wearing this morning!"

That got many gasps from the gathered party. For those who had never heard that name before, they knew that that was the name of one of the missing dwarflings.

"That's not all, Ase. They found arrows around the same area. Arrows from orcs."

Thórin put his hand over his mouth. He knew that the orcs had Fíli and Ase's children. He could almost piece together what happened just by what they knew.

He saw rustling of elves out of the corner of his eye. Thranduil was talking to his guards, whom he dismissed. Something did not sound good as he rejoined the conversing dwarves.

"I bring bad news. My guards just informed me that they found our dog friend again and he was barking in one specific direction," said Thranduil.

"What do you mean?" a shaky Víli asked.

"They believe the orcs are…" He was interrupted by a barking of a dog coming out of the clearing.

"Johnny boy!" Bombur exclaimed.

"Well I never!" said a forgotten Bofur.

"Johnny Boy?" Thórin asked at the same time Thranduil said "dog".

The dog ran over to them, and began to sniff all of them. It was almost if the dog was looking for someone, he stopped in front of Víli and grabbed his shirt in his mouth and began to pull him.

"Hey, stop that!" Víli yelled at him.

The dog just continued to pull. Bofur and Bifur walked over to the dog and proceeded to free Víli from his living trap. "Scram you mutt!" Bofur yelled as the dog ran a specific way.

Bombur looked in the direction that the dog went. "That dog just comes and goes as he pleases, it was actually because of him that I found Fíli in the first place, he had tackled Fíli to the ground. I take it he's not an orphan and he lied to us?"

The royal family and elves just shared a look among themselves. The only person who could answer that one was the dwarfling in question's father.

"Yes, I'm Fíli's father, Víli. This is my wife's father, Thráin. And my wife's two brothers Thórin and Frérin. The elves are Thranduil, Legolas, and Tauriel, dear friends of ours for a very long time." Víli replied pointing each one of them as he introduced them.

Upon hearing those names, Bombur's eyes widened. Ase would mention those names all the time when he first met her wandering the streets of Dale. This would be a good portion of the royal families of Erebor and Mirkwood, all looking for a certain dwarfling named Fíli who was son of one of the members of said royal family, which would make Fíli a prince. He turned his gaze towards his brother and cousin as all three of them realized it at the same time. Fíli must have been mad at his family for him to call himself an orphan. As a prince, he probably had it all, and then he finds a tribe of nomads who have no place to call home, and did not complain. This was complicated.

The dog was barking again, bringing everyone back to the present.

"As I was saying before," Thranduil began, "They're taking the dwarflings to Isengard!" Thranduil all but yelled, it was not good.

This time it was Víli and Bombur the two fathers who fell to the ground.


	10. Some Revelations

A/N This chapter was difficult to write for some reason. Hope you all enjoy!

* * *

Dís lead her son on a walk through the halls of Erebor. She really had no destination in mind just trying to return to a sense of normalcy. Normalcy, now that was a word she was not sure what that was anymore. Her youngest son had amnesia, and she had no idea where her eldest son was. Víli, was trying to find her eldest son, along with her brothers and father. Even though her grandparents, mother, &amp; cousins were still in Erebor, she felt lonely and empty. There was only so much those still in Erebor could do for her, and she did not even consider Kíli there, though there in body. Was it so hard to wish for Fíli to be with her on this walk and have both of her boys laughing down the halls? Dís felt tears running down her cheeks, Fíli, her golden boy, in all her worries about Kíli, she had almost all but forgotten him, what kind of mother was she?

A tug at her skirt drew her attention to Kíli, who was pointing to a door. Not just any door, but the door to the room where this whole thing began. Had she subconsciously brought her son there?

"No, Kíli, we don't go into that room." She said before he could get a word out.

"Why?" Kíli answered.

"Because Uncle Thórin and your father said so," Dís said.

Kíli paused for a brief moment, as trying to put faces to those names. They sounded so familiar, especially Uncle Thórin. However, like everyone else, their faces were hidden from him. If he could only just remember, remember everything, like why did he want to go into that room? He trusted 'Mama', whoever she was to him, and she did look familiar, if only he could remember why.

"Why?" he asked again.

Dís sighed, she thought Kíli was out of the 'why' stage. "Because it's off limits and that's final." She said raising her voice at the end, and pulling Kíli towards the throne room.

Kíli looked back at that door, he would have to sneak away later. He had to see what was in that room, he was very curious about it. Then why did have a bad feeling about it in general?

* * *

"Isengard? Thranduil, are you sure?" asked Thráin after a long pause.

Isengard, was supposed to be a tower protecting the Gap of Rohan, but lately there has been rumors among the free people of Middle Earth that Sauron wanted Isengard for himself, though no one rumor told why.

Thranduil turned back to his guards, the same ones who had brought him the initial news. The guards nodded at their king, no words were needed to anyone who had eyes. Actions needed to be taken, or else risk losing the lives of five young dwarflings, one of whom was an heir to a throne. He turned his head slightly catching the ice blue eyes of his son through the snow, and nodded at him. Legolas nodded in agreement in the unspoken command. He gestured towards Tauriel and the guards and heading towards the woods. Legolas, Tauriel, and the rest of the Mirkwood guards that traveled with them were much faster than a group of dwarves on foot.

"Think they can catch them?" a distressed voice came from behind Thranduil.

Turing around, Thranduil looked at the speaker. It was Víli, a distressed father, a father who had not seen his twenty-year-old dwarfling in a month. He was followed by the other distressed father, the husband of Ase, the exile. Thranduil wished he could tell Víli and Bombur, was it, the truth. That wargs can out run any of them, the best hope he could offer is Legolas and Tauriel following them closely enough to catch up with them when they stop. But, Thranduil did not have the heart to tell the two fathers that, even Víli, whom he has known since his and Dís' courtship nearly 25 years ago.

"I th…" he began.

"Ase! Stop her!" Thráin yelled, interrupting Thranduil.

Ase was half way to the entrance of the forest, when one of Thranduil's guards caught up with her and pulled her back to the group. She fought against the strong grip of the elf.

"Let me go! Those orcs have my children!" She screamed.

"And you nearly killed my nephew 20 years ago! A helpless hours old baby, and knowing you, you nearly did it again. So no, you're not going," said a very stern Thórin, who was feeling like himself for the first time in a month.

Thranduil smiled at Thórin, good that at least someone told her off, just twenty years later. He was one of the ones along with Thórin and Dáin who found Ase holding hours old Fíli over one of the rivers that ran under the Mountain about to drown him. If it were not for Dwalin who had come up from behind her, she would have succeeded. Just the thought of that was enough to make him cringe.

"But the orcs, they have my babies!" Ase tried again.

"And they have my grandson who is better than you in every way!" Thráin responded; he never did like her or her family when she was growing up.

"What about me? They're my children too!" Bombur cut in.

"Bombur!" Ase cried.

Bombur did not realize he was joined by his brother and cousin. They were shocked about that revelation about Ase. To them, she was just a refugee from Erebor for some reason. Never once did she tell them that she had tried to murder a dwarfling when he was just hours old. This was far from over with her.

"Ase, unlike you, I have not lied to you about anything. My brother and cousin will attest to that. I loved you since I laid eyes on you in Dale, but now I can't look at you. I'm going after my children and when I find them we're going to have a nice long talk," Bombur stated. "Come on Bofur and Bifur, let's go find my kids."

Bofur and Bifur nodded at Bombur and followed him towards the woods, the same direction Legolas and his companions had gone.

Thranduil watched as the three dwarves went into the woods, the father, his brother, and cousin. The father of the other lost dwarfling who began all of this, Víli for some reason did not follow the others into the woods. Thranduil looked to where Víli had previously joined him, and noticed him not there. He quickly saw him getting awfully close to Ase and his innocent guard. Uh oh. As much as Ase deserves whatever Víli has in mind, his own son was out there in the custody of orcs. This was not the time.

Thranduil swiftly walked to catch up with Víli, he was about to raise his hand to stop him, when another hand reached up and landed on Víli's shoulder stopping him in his tracks. Thráin, followed closely behind by Thórin and Frérin. It seemed that all four of them had reached the same conclusion at the same time. The comical thing about this entire situation was that they all were looking at one another like a wolf stalking its prey in front of one innocent elven guard and one very guilty dwarrowdam. Someone was going to have to break this up and fast. Innocent lives were in clear danger.

"Víli, leave her be for now. She didn't harm him this time, just like she didn't harm him last time," said Thráin finally ending the humorous situation. "Go with them. Find Fíli. We'll be right behind you."

Víli gulped and turned around to face them. "She deserves it though, more now than 20 years ago." He said in a quiet sort of anger.

"I know and she will get what's coming to her, right now Fíli is in even more danger than she could ever be to him," Thráin said to his son-in-law.

Thranduil caught Thórin's eye. This could end either with them restraining Víli or with them following Víli into the woods. Thranduil gestured for Thórin to get into position just in case they have to restrain Víli, just like they had to do when Víli was told what Ase tried to do with Fíli. Thórin held out a hand to stop Víli from attacking Ase, but before he could touch Víli, he turned and followed Bombur, Bofur, and Bifur.

Thranduil let out a breath he did not know he was holding. That's where Víli belongs, not with Ase. All of the sudden a warg screamed in the woods? Did Legolas or Tauriel find them or was that another warg, one that does not have the dwarflings? There was no time to voice his concerns as Thráin and Thórin rushed into the woods, him following close behind, none of them realizing Frérin wasn't with them…

* * *

Fíli did not know where the orcs were directing their wargs to. All he felt was the jab of the orcs arm around his shoulders. He could not even turn his head to see how the others were faring. All he wanted right now was his family, and the safety of the Mountain. He was scared, hungry, and tired. It has been a long day, and come to think of it, he did not remember the last time he ate. His stomach rumbled gaining some sort of verbal response from the orc behind him. Fíli did not want to think about what was said, whatever it was, it did not sound too good. His stomach rumbled again, this time gaining a jab in the back from the orc.

"Ow!" he yelled.

Apparently, he was not allowed to speak at all, because the orc slapped him across the face.

"What was that for?" he responded, trying but failing to move his hand to his face.

"Fíli!" Eydis or was that Oydis yelled at him, as he heard four other slaps.

None of them were allowed to talk, or else they all get hurt? This was not good. The wargs stopped in a clearing of some sort. Fíli could see a tower in the distance, was that Isengard? He had never seen it, but his tutors always mentioned it to him. Why were they heading there?

* * *

Thrór was in the throne room talking to some of his advisors. He had gone ahead after Dís had gotten Kíli dressed. He had relayed a message to Dís via Dáin and a messenger to bring Kíli to the throne room. Thrór had an idea that a familiar room other than his own would make Kíli remember, since Kíli always seemed to be in here when he was not with his tutors, brother, or uncle. He only hoped he was right. Thrór sighed as one of his advisors went on and on and on about something, was it something about the mines? He had no idea. He was rescued from this when the door opened finally admitted Dís and Kíli.

He held out his hands expecting Kíli to run into them like he had always done. Thrór frowned when he noticed that Kíli was looking down at the floor totally ignoring everyone. This was not his great-grandson at all. Come to think of it, Dís did not look so happy herself. He quickly dismissed his advisors.

"Granddaughter, what ails you?" he asked as she approached the throne, Kíli in tow.

Dís looked down at her son, whose hand she was still gripping, and sighed. "It's everything, Grandfather. Thanks to my brother, I don't currently have my oldest son, nor my husband, or father. My brothers aren't even here."

Her last words were in tears. Thrór beckoned her to come over to him. She did not think twice as she released Kíli's hand and threw herself onto her grandfather's lap just as she did when she was a dwarfling. Thrór hugged her close, this is what she needed.

"There, there. Everything will be okay," he said pressing a kiss on the top of her head.

Dís mumbled something in response. Neither of them realized the door close…

* * *

"Ow!" Fíli cried again earning him and the others another slap. This time the orcs were pulling them off the wargs and to a wooden stake next to a fire in some sort of camp and the orc that had Fíli had grabbed his arm a little too hard.

Fíli allowed the orc to lead him to the stake, he had to be brave for the others, though he did not think he was the oldest, as that he had no idea how old Eydis and Eluf really are, he was still a descendent of Durin, a member of the royal line of Erebor. He did have to act the part. He glanced around to the others. Eluf and Eydis were like him and allowing the orcs to lead them. Tyr and Oydis on the other hand were acting like Kíli normally did. Fighting against anyone they perceived as an enemy.

Fíli gulped. Kíli, the reason why they were all in this mess to begin with. If only he had not chased Kíli into the Forbidden Room that day, Uncle Thórin would not have hurt Kíli, nor yelled at him. Fíli would not have hid for a few hours before making the decision to leave. He would not have been knocked down by the dog and found by Bombur, Bifur, and Bofur. They would not have been chased by these orcs for a week, before being ambushed and captured. Fíli felt tears running down his cheeks. What a huge mess he had led them all into, and there did not seem to be anyone around to rescue them. He should have been a better big brother to Kíli.

Fíli winced as the orcs tied him to the stake.

* * *

Kíli slowly sneaked back the way Mamma and himself had come. These halls seemed so familiar to him if only he could remember why. All he knew is that he needed to be in that room. It was pulling at him, telling him to come into it. But, rooms could not talk, could they? He held his breath and pressed into the wall as two of the dwarrowdams and the auburn haired dwarrow that were in the room with Mamma passed by him in the hall. Kíli remained still as a ghost as they suddenly stopped in front of the door he had just come out of. Were they looking for him? His got his answer as they entered the door.

"Yes!" he said to himself and continued to head to that room. What is it about it? He had not even known it had existed until he passed it. And now, he knew he had to get there, even if he did not know where there is.

He turned a corner and there it was, the door to the room. He paused as a flash of a dwarfling went through his head. The dwarfling had golden curls, and the bluest eyes he had ever seen. Who was that dwarfling? He put his hand on the doorknob.

* * *

"Let us go!" cried Oydis as the orcs finally got her and Tyr to the stake.

Once again, one of them spoke, and once again they all got hit across the face. Fíli was sure at this point they all were sporting some injury on their faces. He could feel blood running down his cheek and he was pretty sure his right eye was black as he could feel the eye drooping. If and when they were ever found, the adults would not be happy. His great-grandfather would order every orc slaughtered. Even King Thranduil would order the same, he had punished that one guard one time for pushing him down the steps to the dungeons.

"Ack!" he cried as the orcs tied the five of them together. What was the point of that if they were each tied to the stake?

Fíli braced himself for another slap, but that never came as the orcs finally left them alone. Could they finally talk amongst themselves, it was not as if they were going to go anywhere?

Eydis tried for them. "Okay, Fíli, I asked you before we were taken. What is your story?"

At that point, Fíli knew he had to tell them the truth. He owed it to them that much especially for getting them into this mess. He was about to answer when a sudden pressure in his head became too much. He winced.

"What's wrong?" asked Eluf expecting an answer, instead getting a wince.

"It felt like, like…"

This was not right, he had never felt anyone in his head before but this pressure, it was…

"**KIIIIIIIIIIIIILLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLIIIIIIIIII**!" he screamed, drawing the attention of every orc in the camp.

* * *

Kíli finally stepped into the room. It had a large stone statue of a dwarf in the back. Along the walls, all kinds of weapons were lined up, everything from swords, to axes, to knives, even bows and arrows. Kíli walked over to the bows and picked one up. For some reason the weapon felt right in his hands, had he ever held a bow before? Was he even allowed to hold one?

Placing the bow back down, he felt a pressure in his head. He wandered over to the middle of the room. There was something strange going on here, why did this place call to him? He looked around and back at the stone statue. All of the sudden the golden haired dwarfling flashed through his head again. He knew that dwarfling! Kíli smiled to himself, something else he remembered. Just then, a flash of another familiar dwarf flashed into his head, and then another, and another. Places, people, events, all flashed back into his head.

Kíli collapsed to his knees as the pressure became too much. He yelled out the first name that came to mind.

"**FIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIILLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLIIIIIIIIII!**"


	11. Found, but not yet

A/N: Please don't hate me for this chapter!

* * *

Frérin held back until the last elven guard was out of sight before turning his sights back on Ase, who was still in the captivity of Thranduil's guard. He could only stare at her; it was really the first time they were together in close to twenty-one years, a lifetime; Fíli's lifetime. Frérin realized that she had never met Kíli, probably did not even know he existed. He watched as Ase tried to free herself from the hard grip of the elven guard, and he could not take it anymore.

"Release her. I'll stay and watch her, go help in finding my nephew," Frérin told the guard.

"Prince Frérin?" the guard said in surprise.

Frérin gritted his teeth. "I said I have her. Go!"

The elven guard recoiled in surprise. He proceeded to drop his hand from the shoulder of Ase who breathed a sigh of relief. The guard gave one last glance at Frérin and Ase and ran into the woods.

That was all Frérin and Ase needed, as they closed the gap. Frérin grabbed Ase into his arms and shared a long deep kiss, totally oblivious the other dwarves from the caravan in the cave trying to gather their belongings.

"I've missed you, Ase. I was devastated Grandfather banished you," said Frérin releasing his lips from Ase.

"I've missed you too, Frérin. I'm sorry I was caught," she replied, drawing Frérin into another kiss.

"I'm sorry too, Ase. I'm so sorry. I never wanted this for you, for this entire mess to happen," Frérin replied, holding Ase tight.

"You were supposed to be the King under the Mountain after Thórin, not your sister's blonde brat," said Ase.

Frérin nodded in agreement finally releasing his hold on Ase, "that was our plan, but it backfired because of my dear sister walking into the room earlier than she was supposed to. And you didn't hear the rest. Somehow, after you left, Grandfather found out about my involvement in the plan, and threw me out of the succession. So now, Fíli is Thórin's heir and his little brother, Kíli has taken my place. If it wasn't for my parents, Grandfather would have banished me as well."

Ase eyes widened, she did not know any of that, or anything about the second prince. When Thranduil, Thórin, and Dáin found her with baby Fíli by the river, she had told them she had worked alone, trying to hide all of Frérin's involvement with the plot to rid the obstruction to Frérin being king and her the queen under the Mountain. Instead, it was all for naught, as she ended up married to a nomadic dwarf, and had four children with him, and he a prince with no hope for a throne.

"What did they say that convinced him not to banish you?" Ase asked, now wondering.

Frérin gulped, this was still a sore subject with him. "My father said that I was the king's grandson, and he loves me and shouldn't hurt me. My mother mentioned that Thórin has an heir in the baby and I would never be king anyways."

"That saved you?" Ase asked.

Frérin nodded, "It was about a month after you were banished; still not sure how he found out to this day. I was fully prepared to follow you to the wild".

"A month?" Ase asked, gaining the smallest of small nods from Frérin. "A week after I was banished from Erebor I had met Bombur in Dale, two weeks later we left after his brother and cousin came back from trading in the Mountain. I married him four weeks later, and was carrying Eydis around that time as well."

"Married? Within four weeks?" Frérin cried. "Ase, how could you? You and I since childhood were supposed to be together."

Tears began to fall from Ase's eyes. "And tell me how that would have worked, Prince Frérin? You the grandson of King Thrór, and me, a simple miner's daughter. That would have never worked. Were lucky we were allowed to be friends."

Frérin's eyes found the ground, "I would have made it work, Ase, somehow."

"Frérin..." Ase began grabbing Frérin's hands in her own, causing him to look up. "Can we go back to the way things were?"

"I don't know, Ase. I simply don't know anymore," Frérin replied, as Ase dropped her head into his chest as snowflakes continued their silent dance from the sky.

"Do you love him now?" Ase asked suddenly interrupting their moment.

"Who?" Frérin asked pushing Ase off of him.

"Your nephew, Fíli." She replied.

Frérin closed his eyes. Out of all the questions she could ask, it had to be this one; the one question that he had been asking himself for the past twenty something years.

"I don't interact with him much. Thórin has mostly been his uncle to him, never me. I tend to interact more with Kíli, Fíli's brother." Frérin said.

"Do you love him, Frérin?" Ase asked again.

Frérin sighed. "In my own way, I do, I just don't know him, like I know his brother."

"Then let's go." Ase said.

"Go where, Ase? Were finally together again after all these years," said Frérin.

"Go to rescue your nephew and my children. Once we have them, we can either finally get rid of your nephew or return him to your brother-in-law and take my children and leave this all behind. We can finally be together forever." replied Ase.

Frérin could only agree as he pulled Ase towards the woods leaving the rest of the caravan to clean up the mess in the cave.

* * *

Fíli did not have time to react as the biggest orc he had seen yet came over to him and slapped him clear across the face, leaving a burning cut on his cheek. He could not turn his head but he heard subsequent slaps as the others were slapped for his yelling. What was that pressure in his head? What had caused him to yell out Kíli's name of all things? It had relived the pressure in his head sure, but it had caused him to have yet another cut on his face. He had lost count on how many times the orcs had hit him for speaking. His mother would run her axe through all of these orcs for hitting him.

Fíli sniffled as tears and more noise threatened to come from him. Someone kicked his left foot, Eydis maybe, trying to get him to keep quiet before they got slapped again. But Fíli was not sure if he could stop this. He missed his mother; he had not seen her for over a month now. All he wanted to do was curl up in her arms and never leave. Fíli vowed in his head that once he was free from these orcs he was going to return to Erebor, prince or not.

Fíli sniffled again. "I have a confession to make to you Eydis," he whispered as loud as he could, as not to draw the attention of the orcs.

"Finally going to tell me your story?" she snapped back a little loudly but luckily no orcs heard her.

Fíli winced as his cheeks burned. He had to get through this, this time. He really did owe it to them. "I am not just some common orphan, Eydis. I was born in Erebor to Princess Dís and Lord Víli."

He could feel Eydis cringe at that. He knew that she was putting two and two together. "If you're the son of a princess that would make you…"

"A prince. Prince Fíli of Erebor at your service," he replied solemnly.

"No way!" a small voice came from the other side of Fíli. "You're not a prince! You can't be, Fíli!" It was Oydis; who screamed that all out, luckily quiet enough that the orcs did not hear her.

"Yes, I can be, Oydis," Fíli said softly. "My great-grandfather is King Thrór himself. I was going to be king one day. But not anymore," he said that last part more to himself than to anyone else.

No one noticed the heavy beating of the drum coming through the orc camp. "But why, Fíli? You had it all, a home, a bed to call your own, a loving family, why did you leave it all?" It was Eluf who asked that time.

Fíli sighed, he should have known it would come to this. "I ran away. My uncle Thórin said that I was not his heir anymore and I should get out after my brother got hurt because of me. I only did what he told me to do."

The drums stopped at that point, as what had to be Middle Earth's largest orc ever entered Fíli's vision. He did not have time to contemplate what that meant when two orcs came over to the stake and untied just him. He struggled and screamed as he was dragged over to the large orc. Could the orcs have heard his confession?

* * *

Legolas, Tauriel, and the rest of Legolas's guards ran through the woods trying to catch up with the wargs that carried Fíli and four other dwarflings to only the Valar knew where. Hopefully not Isengard, Legolas was really in no mood to meet Sauron that day. Legolas could have sworn he caught a glimpse of a dog darting through the trees just ahead of them. That was impossible, right? Out of the corner of his eye he saw Tauriel stop, and the rest of the guards stop. What had he missed following the dog?

"We have to keep going! Lives of children are in danger." He said walking over to everyone.

"Legolas, we know, but listen," responded Tauriel with a look of horror on her face.

Legolas only had to pause for a brief second. A drum! An orc drum and a deep one nonetheless. They were close, he only hoped they were not too late, for the deeper the sound of the drum the higher up on the closer to Sauron the orc was. Legolas was about to give the order to follow the sound when a branch cracked in the distance. All of his guards including Tauriel lowered their bows, to protect their prince. Was it a warg?

"Bofur, Bifur, hurry up! My children are in danger!" they heard.

Legolas gestured for the guards to lower the bows. It was the father of the other four dwarflings and his family. Legolas was not sure of the relationship between the three, but he knew that they were no danger to him.

"Hello!" he yelled out to them. They had to regroup, especially if he was right about the drum's meaning.

It took less than a minute for the three to make their appearance. "We're glad we caught up with you," said Bombur. "I'd appreciate all the help I can get to get my children back, even if you are here for the prince." Bombur ended that on a solemn note.

Legolas nodded to Tauriel, for some reason he felt that this needed to come from a female. "Those orcs took innocent children; we would do anything for stop that. Children in our culture are revered."

Bombur smiled, "Thank you. I don't think I ever introduced myself to you. Bombur at your service." He said bowing his head. "And this crazy fellow in the hat is my brother Bofur."

"At your service," Bofur said removing his hat and bowing.

Bombur watched Bofur replace his hat on his head, "and this is our cousin Bifur. He had an accident a while back that is why he has an axe in his head. He only speaks Khuzdul."

Bifur muttered something in Khudzul that Legolas took for "At your service."

Legolas had to return the favor of introductions. "You already met my father, Thranduil. My name is Legolas, and this is the captain of my father's guard Tauriel who is more like my bodyguard."

"Legolas!" Tauriel protested.

"And these are my guards," he finished gesturing to the others.

All of the sudden there was complete silence in the woods. The drums had stopped. "Your highness, what does that mean?" one of the guards asked.

"I have no idea," Legolas said instantly, whatever it meant it probably was not good.

Bombur started to shake; he knew something was not good. "We have to go, now. I have this feeling."

Legolas could not argue. He took two steps when someone in the distance yelled at them to stop. It was a very familiar voice. Legolas smiled when he saw who it was. His father, Thráin, Thórin, Víli, and the rest of the Mirkwood guards. For some reason Frérin was not with them. Legolas could not think about that when a scream cut through the woods so loud that it hurt.

Víli gulped. "That was Fíli. That was my son screaming."

Thráin and Thranduil nodded. "Legolas lead the way; we need to get going now!" Thranduil said.

There was no time to lose at all, they were so close but they all felt so far.

* * *

The pressure in his head went down and Kíli stood up with his head clear for the first time in days. He knew where he was and he knew who he was! He also knew he did not belong in this room. Uncle Thórin would not be happy. Kíli knew he had to get out of there before he was caught. He smiled a very mischievous smile like he hadn't done since he woke up. It felt so good to do that, felt so good to be himself again. He wondered where Fíli was. Although he did not know who his family was, he could remember some of them being with him. He did not remember seeing Fíli, Papa, Grandfather, Uncle Frérin or Uncle Thórin at all. Something strange was going on.

He did not have time to think when Cousin Dáin walked into the room looking for him. Kíli felt tears running down his cheeks, he knew Cousin Dáin and he wanted him right that second!

"Dáin!" Kíli cried, all but leaping into Dáin's arms, scaring said dwarrow right out of his wits.

Dáin looked at the dwarfling in his arms, who was currently burying his head into his beard. Did he just call out his name? He decided to test this out.

"Kíli?" he asked hesitantly.

Kíli looked up, meeting Dáin's eyes. "Hi!" he said before hiding his head again in Dáin's beard.

Dáin's face lit up with a big smile. "Kíli you know who I am?"

The dwarfling nodded without removing his head. Dáin chuckled as he pulled Kíli out of his beard. "Your back!" Dáin said to Kíli. "We have to tell everyone!"

Dáin carried Kíli out of the forbidden room and into the throne room, where the rest of the family still in Erebor was gathered, Dís still on Thrór's lap. He was the only one who went out to find Kíli once Dís realized he was missing. Dáin watched the smile form on Kíli's face again as he recognized everyone. He nearly dropped said dwarfling as he squirmed out of his arms as he saw his mother.

"Mama!" Kíli screamed running the rest of the distance from the throne room door to the throne.

Dís just had enough time to sit up before a dark-haired dwarfling leapt into her arms hugging her like his life depended on it. And in a way, it did.

"Kíli?" Dís asked.

Kíli hugged her tighter, as he began to cry. "Mama!"

"Kíli?" Dís asked as Dáin approached the throne. "Dáin?"

"He's back, Dís. I found him in the training room where the accident happened. Something in there must have triggered his memory. He knows me, he knows you, he knows all of us!" Dáin said referring to the family.

A set of hands reached out to take Kíli from Dís. "May I?" asked Thrór.

Dís smiled and went to hand Kíli over to her grandfather. Thrór did not have enough time to react when Kíli turned around and wrapped his arms around his neck so fast that the elderly dwarrow nearly fell over. "My boy! My little Kíli!" Thrór whispered into Kíli's ears. That was for him and him alone.

Kíli held onto his great-grandfather with such tightness that it hurt. But the question lingering in his mind was bothering him. Where was Fíli? Where is his brother?

* * *

Legolas did not know why his father told him to lead the way when he had no idea which way was right. He knew the general direction of the drum beat, but other than a general direction he had no idea. All he knew to anyone looking at this pathetic looking parade of elves and dwarves would get a good laugh. Legolas had to admit and everyone in it would probably agree that if it were not for the dire situation of reality, this would make the history books for being humorous just for the drastic height differences between the elves and dwarves.

He made a move to duck beneath a low-lying branch when a gasp went up from behind him. For the second time in about an hour, he had missed something important, and to add to the fire, he was a good 100 feet in front of the nearest being. He backtracked to where everyone else had stopped, looking at a clearing in the woods.

"Oh Valar!" was the only thing he could say, as the sight of what seemed like one-thousand orcs, and in the middle of the camp, tied to a stake were four dwarflings, obviously Bombur's children. But, where was Fíli?

"What have I done?" Thórin said suddenly, surprising Legolas.

"What do you mean?" Legolas whispered.

All Thórin had to do was point. Two orcs were approaching what appeared to be the leader. In between the two of them was Fíli. This was not good. No, this was not good at all.

* * *

A/N: Well were coming close to the end of this one. I'm thinking one maybe two more chapters.

But I'm also not done writing. I'm thinking of furthering this universe with some back stories of Frerin, Ase, Bombur, Vili, and how the elves and dwarves became allies. Anyone interested in this?

I'm also seeing big sequel in mind. Dont forget in this universe, although there was no Smaug, the One Ring still exists. I'm also looking for a co-author for this sequel (I don't foresee having a lot of time this summer.) Anyone interested?


	12. Reunited Somewhat

A/N 1: Reuploaded because of a replace all error.

A/N 2: And now the moment you've all been waiting for

* * *

Fíli had no idea what the orcs wanted from him. Did they suspect him being of the Line of Durin, hence a member of the royal family of Erebor? Or, was it because he was the most outspoken of the five dwarflings? Whatever he did, he did not like it. That was a large scary looking orc. He knew he did not want to be here at this moment. Anywhere was a better thought, but he had to be brave, brave like the prince that he was. He heard a faint whimper from behind him. Oydis maybe? He was oblivious to the world behind him, did not even flinch when he heard the ringing of a sword being unsheathed.

* * *

"I'm going to get those orcs!" an enraged Bombur exclaimed as he raised his axe, prepared to barge into the orc camp.

"No!" said Thranduil putting his arm out to stop Bombur. "If we all want to come out of this alive, we need to work together."

"But, my children!" Bombur protested.

"Are in the same danger as Fíli and the rest of us," Thranduil said raising his hand, which was the signal for Tauriel to line up the archers to prepare for battle.

Bombur then understood what the unspoken plan was; have the archers shoot the orcs, and then have dwarves with the axes and swords rush in at close range. He only hoped that this was a successful plan, losing any of his children was not an option today nor any day. He jumped back slightly when Víli came up next to him.

"I'm going to rush in towards my son, I recommend you do the same towards yours," he said gaining a nod from Bombur.

This was not going to be easy. There were so many orcs separating them from the dwarflings. Bombur turned his head to see the elves all in position, ready to shoot. He crouched down next to Víli waiting for the order. All of the sudden, surprising everyone, one of the orcs standing behind Fíli unsheathed a sword and prepared to swing it in Fíli's direction.

"NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!" someone yelled running through the brush towards the orc camp.

* * *

"Where's Fee?" Kíli asked for the umpteenth time to his Great-Grandfather who held his hand tight. Both of them currently leading a small parade to the kitchens. They were all hungry and needed a snack after the realization that Kíli finally remembered everything.

"He's with your father and uncles," Thrór said to Kíli again. "I only hope I'm right," he muttered to Dís who was walking next to him.

"I hope your right too, or else I'm going to have my brother's head when he comes back." Dís said quietly.

"Dís," Thrór said in warning, as Kíli pulled his hand away.

"Where's Fee?" Kíli asked yet again, this time sounding angry.

"Kíli," a voice sounded from behind them in warning.

"I want Fíli! Fee!" Kíli cried falling to the floor.

"Kíli!" Dís yelled in astonishment, Kíli had not done this in a few months.

"FEEEE!" Kíli wailed kicking his feet to the ground in a full out tantrum.

"Kíli, stop this!" Thrór said hoping to calm him down by gentle words. But, what can calm down such a screaming child?

It was to no avail, as Kíli continued his tantrum. Dáin was at the end of the parade, conversing with one of the mining supervisors who had caught him earlier. He was not paying much attention to what the supervisor was saying, he could have been saying something about a dragon in Erebor, and Dáin would not have known, so unfocused was he. When Kíli had started his tantrum, he quickly dismissed the supervisor and pushed his way through his family. Dáin was livid at this entire situation. Here was a young dwarfling crying on for his missing brother, whom he probably did not even remember existed until a few hours ago. Said dwafling's mother and great-grandfather standing around not doing a thing about it, and forget about his grandmother and great-grandmother who had stepped back, away from this tantrum as if it had nothing to do with them.

"Enough, Kíli!" Dáin yelled, bending down and scooping up his cousin, somehow avoiding being punched.

"Fiiiiiiiiiiiliiiiiiiii!" Kíli yelled trying to squirm out of Dáin's arms, to no success. Dáin was much stronger than the fifteen-year old.

He turned around and began to head in the direction of Kíli's bedroom. "Dáin!" Dís exclaimed in protest.

"Follow me!" he yelled back as he turned a corner out of Dís' sight.

* * *

It all happened so fast for Fíli. One minute he's all but dragged to Middle Earth's biggest orc, and the next he's being thrown to the ground after an extremely familiar voice yelled. What was going on and why did that voice sound oh so familiar? He dared to raise his head off the ground, as he did not hear or smell (orcs have a very distinctive smell) any orcs close to him.

What greeted him was the happiest sight he had ever seen in his short life, Uncle Thórin running towards him! Any doubts that Fíli had that he was no longer loved or wanted by his uncle were erased, and all he wanted to do was to run over to his uncle and apologize. Of course, the one thing he wanted to do, he was blocked from doing by orcs.

"Fíli, look out!" another familiar voice cried out in the distance, his grandfather.

Fíli gasped and rolled quickly as fast as he could to the right, just as an astray arrow landed where he was laying a few seconds before. Fíli got a good look at that arrow, he's held an arrow like that numerous times in the past. It was an elven arrow from Mirkwood, which could only belong to Legolas. A cry went up and out from the woods came a very familiar contingent of elves and dwarves, including his father, grandfather, Legolas, Tauriel, Thranduil and other familiar elven and dwarven guards all armed and ready for battle. Even Bombur, Bofur and Bifur were there for Eydis, Eluf, Oydis and Tyr.

Fíli smiled to himself, if everyone was here, then he was still wanted, still loved, and still a prince, if only he could survive this battle which had quickly escalated. The best thing was that there were currently no orcs paying attention to him nor the others tied to the stake. Something in Fíli was growing inside of him in that moment, and he was not exactly sure what it was but he liked it as hit made him feel brave and special.

"Fíli!" Eydis cried out as another stray elven arrow came just a little too close to her head for her liking.

Fíli knew he had to spring into action. Glancing around the battle and his immediate vicinity, he laid eyes on two small knives the orcs must have dropped when they threw him to the ground. He was just starting his weapons training with Dwalin and Uncle Thórin, but he was confident in himself that he could use those knives to rescue his friends.

Tyr and Oydis screamed as an elven guard killed an orc right in front of them. Fíli picked up the knives and using his newly found feeling ran towards the stake holding his friends. He was just about there when an orc holding their version of an axe crossed into his path; it was Fíli's first real battle. Fíli held up his found knives in the ready position like he's been taught.

"Fíli, do you know what you're doing?" Eluf asked, who had the best view of Fíli.

Fíli only nodded as the orc swung at him first. Running purely on instinct Fíli spun out of the way with the knives out and in his spinning managed to gash the orc on the belly. The orc did not like that too much as it yelled out in pain.

Fíli knew he had the upper hand as he used the knives the gash the orc again and this time it fell to the ground giving him the opportunity to cut his friends free. He raised the knife in his right hand to cut the rope when the downed orc grabbed his foot pulling him to the ground. The dwarfling gave a sound of protest as he met the ground again this time hard enough to make him skip a breath as the knives fell out of his hands. Oblivious was he to any sound at that moment as he caught his breath. He did not even realize that someone had set his friends free and they were quickly running in the direction that the elves and dwarves had come from. Needless to say the sound of metal hitting metal shocked him more than anything could have.

"This will teach you for even laying one hand on my nephew!" yelled Thórin as he chopped off the orcs head with his sword.

_Safe_, was the only word that echoed through Fíli's mind as he rolled over to see Thórin standing over him. Time seemed to stand still as future king stood over his heir, and both of them had tears running down his eyes. No one around them seemed to exist in that single moment. Before Thórin could open his mouth to apologize, Fíli leapt up off the ground and into Thórin's arms crying into his dark beard, as Thórin gently fell to his knees taking Fíli down with him.

* * *

Dáin kicked open the door to Kíli's room and all but threw the still kicking and screaming dwarfling onto his bed. Dáin then proceeded to pull Dís and Thrór into the room as well, but locked everyone else out including Nain and Narvi whom Dáin was sure the queen had summoned. Kíli, who upon finding himself on his bed had stopped kicking and was sitting up looking at Dáin.

"You want to continue to kick and scream? You may do it in here, not out there." Kíli blinked confusingly at Dáin. "Go ahead, do it, we have all day for you to carry on." Dáin finished finding a chair that had been left at Kíli's bedside during the long vigil.

"Dáin?" Fíli asked.

"Sit down, Uncle, Dís. We may be here a while, it's up to Kíli." Dáin replied gesturing to the bed and to another chair.

"Where's Fíli?" asked a sniffling Kíli from the bed. "I want Fee!"

"You can talk normally. So you can get a normal response," said Dáin gesturing to his cousin. "Dís, would you kindly answer your son?"

Thrór snorted at that bit of comic relief. At least Kíli had calmed down. Thrór caught Dís's eyes and the unspoken question, should she tell Kíli the whole truth about why Fíli was not there? Fíli then turned to Dáin on the other chair, and got a nod in response. They were all thinking the same thing.

"Sweetie, you remember your accident with Uncle Thórin right?" Kíli nodded. "After that, your uncle was not very nice to Fíli, so Fíli decided to go away for a while and your father, uncles, and grandfather went to go find him." Dís explained as simply as possible for a young mind to process.

Kíli sat there sniffling again for a few minutes. "Can we go find Fee?" Kíli asked softly.

Dís smiled and went to hug her son. "No sweetie. We don't know which direction they went and by this time I'm hoping their on the way back. But, know what, we can wait by the gate every day until they come back and you can be the first one to greet them. How does that sound?"

Dáin and Thrór nodded their heads in agreement, that was a good plan and it prevented another tantrum.

"That sounds great, Mama! Let's go now!" exclaimed an eager Kíli who leapt from the bed pulling Dís up with him.

Dís took that moment to scoop up Kíli into her arms. "Wait a moment Kíli, we still need to eat something. If you want, you can take your food to the gate." She said with a smile, as she carried Kíli and unlocked the door.

She only hoped Kíli would not be waiting too long.

* * *

"I'm so sorry, Fíli. I was wrong, so wrong," Thórin whispered into Fíli's ear.

Fíli only nodded and squeezed Thórin tight. He knew it was dangerous to break down in tears in the middle of battle but Fíli did not care. He had been separated from his family for more than a month; he was allowed this moment. Fíli barely had time to react when Thórin rolled over still holding him, to pick up his sword, which he had dropped before Fíli had jumped to him, and was able to defend himself and Fíli against the threatening orc.

Thórin sprang to his feet, releasing his nephew. "Fíli, go with your friends, hide in a tree and wait. Someone will get you down soon."

Fíli did not want to be told twice and ran in the direction that his friends went. He reached the trees luckily unharmed. "Fíli! You're okay" a small male voice said.

It was Tyr running in his direction followed by his sisters and brother. All five of them were safe and unharmed. "We need to get into a tree." Fíli told them.

"A tree? Fíli last time we did that you got us into this mess." Eydis said in protest.

"I know, but this time I know that someone will come for us. Look, how can they not come for us?" Fíli said gesturing to the battle.

Oydis smiled. "I'll choose a tree! I like that one!" she said pointing to a tree with low branches that gave them a clear view of the battle.

"Good one, Oydis! Let's go!" Fíli said leading all five of them into the tree.

Once Fíli reached the top branch, he turned his sights on the battle. He saw his Uncle fighting the orc. But it seemed that his uncle was losing, for the orc had Thórin on the ground in an almost headlock.

"Uncle Thórin!" Fíli screamed in warning but in the noise of the battle it fell on death's ears.

Just then there was a rustling of branches and the barking of a dog. Out from the trees came the dog followed by Frérin and Ase both with the looks of a warrior on their faces.

"Mama!" Tyr and Oydis said together.

Ase either did hear them or chose to ignore them. The two of them had one dwarf in mind, one that they had to help and it did not take long to find him. Frérin leapt onto the orc holding Thórin down and stabbed him in the neck, while Ase helped Thórin up.

"What?" Thórin asked in surprise.

Ase did not answer as she swung her borrowed sword at the orc. Thórin took a few steps back. This was one battle he was not sure he wanted to be involved with. He watched as Frérin, Ase, and oddly enough, his friend the dog attacked the orc. It was a pretty amazing sight. Neither Frérin, Thórin nor Ase realized the other orc coming up from behind them until it too late. The orc took a swing and hit both Frérin and Ase at the same time. Both of them falling together to the ground.

"Maaaaaaaaaaammmmmmmmmmmmmmaaaaaaa!" Eydis, Eluf, Oydis and Tyr cried at the same time Fíli yelled, "UNCLE FRERIN!"

* * *

A/N: Or Not


	13. Safe at Last

A/N: I hope you enjoy this chapter and its not too cheesy. I've deleted this chapter and rewrote 4 times. A week in the writing.

* * *

It all happened in slow motion. Thórin had barely time to raise his sword to defend himself when the orc that had felled Ase and Frérin started to attack him. Thranduil had killed the orc he was battling and turned in the direction of the screaming dwarflings. He barely had time to register the fact that he did leave Ase in the care of a guard rather than be here when the crying of three arrows came from behind him, missing him since he was not the target, and landed in the back of the orc that was threatening Thórin.

Coming back into real time, Thranduil turned around to see who had shot those arrows. He was not surprised to see Legolas and Tauriel involved, but what did surprise him was the guard he told explicitly to hold the traitor lowering his bow. Why that guard was there would have to be investigated later as well as why Ase was now lying on the ground bleeding along with Frérin.

"Help!" young voices cried causing Thranduil to turn back to the other side.

He saw Thórin standing there unhurt, but gazed and probably out of the battle for the time being, and two wargs clawing at the bottom of the tree the dwarflings were held up in.

"Legolas! Tauriel! The children!" he yelled.

No further orders were needed for the Prince of the Woodland Realm and the Captain of the Guard of said Realm. They ran through the battle that had turned to their side towards the tree. Tauriel and Legolas each took a warg and with one swing of their swords, the wargs were down.

"Legolas! Tauriel!" an excited voice called their names from the top of the tree; Fíli who was looking down at them.

"Stay there, Fíli!" Legolas said.

"But!" Fíli protested, he was getting scared, as he saw one uncle lying on the ground, and the other dazed but hiding behind a rock Fíli did not notice was there earlier. He did not see his grandfather, and he was not sure if his father was there or not, he could have sworn he saw blonde curls like himself, but he was not sure.

"Fíli! Don't argue, remember what happened last time?" Tauriel said interrupting.

Fíli did remember what happened last time he argued with Legolas, it resulted in both princes having to clean up the royal stables of both Mirkwood and Erebor. Not fun at all. Fíli nodded as he watched Bombur and a trio of Thranduil's guards take down an orc on a warg.

"Go papa!" Tyr yelled as he saw the same thing Fíli saw.

Suddenly the worst sound ever was heard throughout the battle. An orc horn, more orcs were coming their way. Legolas and Tauriel knew at that point their only job was to protect the dwarflings. With ease, they climbed into the tree, Tauriel taking a lower branch where Fíli, Oydis, and Eluf sat, and Legolas going up to a higher branch with Eydis and Tyr.

"Fíli, I'm scared, what was that?" Oydis asked as Tauriel sat down next to him.

To be honest with himself, Fíli did not know either, but it had to be bad if it drew both Legolas and Tauriel into the tree with him. A small chill went up through his spine as he watched Tauriel draw her bow and shoot what seemed to be blindly in the direction of the sound. The loud scream in response was all Fíli needed to figure out what that sound was, more orcs. Fíli could only sit in the tree and watch with horror as another regiment of orcs came running into view. The dwarves and elves were completely outnumbered!

Fíli looked around for familiar faces. Uncle Thórin had at least come out of his hiding place and was now swinging his swords and offing as many orcs as he could. He finally got a glimpse of his father who was battling side by side with his grandfather. His other uncle was still lying on the ground next to an unmoving Ase, but was moving his fingers. Fíli thought that was a good sign. Thranduil, along with the contingent of Erebor guards were surrounded by orcs but were holding their own. And his friend's father, uncle, and cousin were helping out the Mirkwood guards. That left Tauriel and Legolas up in the tree with him shooting arrows into orcs but were quickly running out.

Just then the dog came back out of the woods, Fíli was not sure when he had even left, and following the dog in the sky were the Eagles! A cry went out from the battle as the Eagles began to attack the orcs. Fíli was not sure how the Eagles knew that they were in trouble, but he was glad that they here. He had always thought they were a myth since his tutors had told him and Kíli stories about them that did not seem real. Nevertheless, here they were helping them out. Fíli watched from the tree as the Eagles killed the orcs and wargs leaving the elves and dwarves alone.

"Are the Eagles helping us?" he heard Tyr ask Legolas.

Fíli turned his head up to see Legolas smile down at Tyr with his innocent question.

"Yes, they are look almost all of the orcs are gone," Legolas replied still smiling.

It did not take long before all of the orcs and wargs either had been killed or had fled into the woods never to bother them again. One of the Eagles, obviously its leader landed in front of Thranduil. An exchange of greetings and thanks occurred as the Eagle led his fellow Eagles back in the direction they had come from. Finally, the battle was over.

Legolas whistled very loudly and got a response back almost immediately. Fíli gave a little yelp as Tauriel picked him up and placed him on her shoulders and brought him to the ground. He found himself being taken off Tauriel and into a pair of familiar arms.

"Papa!" Fíli cried.

Víli hugged Fíli so tightly that he felt like he was going to pop. He did not care though, he was going home back to the Mountain, back to his family, back to being a Prince. So relaxed and safe in his father's arms was he that he did not realize Legolas and Tauriel helping the others out of the tree and handing them to Bombur, Bofur, and Bifur. He found himself falling asleep in his father's arms, stirring slightly when a pair of strong arms took him from his father. Víli ran over to where Thráin was kneeling and Thórin was standing over Frérin.

"No Frérin, you're going to be okay! We'll get you to Narvi, and you're going to be okay." Thráin cried cutting through the stillness.

With what little strength Frérin had left, he was able to grasp his father's hand.

"Father, I wanted…I wanted…to…apologize… for… Ase, we… wanted …to… make amends." Frérin wheezed out.

Thráin squeezed Frérin's hand. "Now, none of that. You have already apologized and paid a penalty. But, you're going to live. Thórin needs you. Dís, Kíli, Fíli, &amp; Víli all need you. Your mother needs you. I need you." He whispered the last part.

Thráin never received a response. For Frérin took a look behind his father and Thórin to see Thranduil holding a sleeping Fíli. He smiled one last smile, gave one last gasp, and then his hand went limb in Thráin's hand.

"Frérin!" Thórin cried as he fell to his knees on top of his brother's body. Thráin just sat there crying to himself, while Víli just stood there looking stunned. None of them paying attention to the crying dwarflings a few feet away weeping over the still body of their mother…

* * *

It took nearly three hours for elves and dwarves to reach the cave where the caravan was. Thranduil had handed a sleeping Fíli back to his father; and took the honor of being a pallbearer for Frérin along with his son. He did not know nor care who picked up Ase, that was an ordeal finally over.

It was a much cleaner sight than earlier when Thranduil and Thórin had defended the cave. All the wagons were upright and there was no longer belongings scattered on the floor, what was out was now laid out neatly in front of each wagon. A fire was lit in the middle of the cave and various dwarves of all ages were sitting around it. When they were spotted with two bodies, the crowd dispersed allowing the group some privacy. Thranduil saw a flat rock that was long enough and high enough to allow Prince Frérin of Erebor to lie in state in the cave for the time being. Once Frérin's body was settled on the rock, he took off his mighty cloak and covered Frérin with it. It was not exactly proper dwaven burial customs but for the time being it would have to do.

"Thank you, Thranduil." A solemn voice belonging to Thráin came from behind him.

"It was the least I could do," the King of Mirkwood responded, "How's Thórin taking this? How are you doing?"

"I think Thórin is very torn between celebrating the fact that Fíli is finally safe or mourning the loss of his brother. To be honest with you, I don't think I ever really forgave him for being involved in the plot twenty years ago. I love him because he's my son, but it's very hard to forgive attempted murder." Thráin answered.

Thranduil placed his hand on Thráin's shoulder. "Then remember him because you loved him, not for his actions, but because he was a piece of you."

Thranduil squeezed Thráin's shoulder in friendship and then left to go brief the guards. "I hope you heard that Frérin wherever you are now." Thráin whispered and left to join the rest of his family and friends sitting by the fire.

Thráin smiled. Fíli had his eyes half open in his father's arm staring at Thórin who did not seem to realize Fíli was awake yet. It seemed that once he did Fíli was going be with his uncle just like it should be. Said uncle was currently deep in conversation with his Woodland Realm counterpart and his brother-in-law. Thráin sat down next to his son, effectively ending the conversation, a comfortable silence fell across the group.

"I miss him already, Father," Thórin said cutting through the silence.

"I know you do; so do I," Thráin answered.

Víli looked down at Fíli and realized that he was awake. He gave Fíli another hug. "I almost lost him again."

"Again, what do you mean?" Fíli asked sitting up in his father's arms.

Víli and Thórin exchanged a look. This was a subject Dis and themselves had vowed never to tell Fíli until he was much older. Víli gulped but knew he had to answer fast, so he came up with a little white lie.

"You were very sick when you were younger. We were not sure if you were going to survive or not," Víli said quickly gaining a very hurt look from Legolas, in which Víli gave a shrug. It was a poor excuse, but it was easier for Fíli to understand than the truth.

"Oh, I didn't know that," Fíli said with a yawn.

"Still sleepy I see," Thórin said, "a future king needs to sleep just as much as other dwarves."

Fíli's eyes lightened up. Although he now knew his uncle did not mean what he said to him, he needed to hear it from his own lips. "You mean I'm still your heir?" he asked.

Thórin frowned as he reached for Fíli to come into his arms. Tears suddenly fell from Fíli's eyes as he launched himself into Thórin's arms, burying his face into Thórin's beard again, giving Víli a much-needed break.

"Oh, Fíli. Fíli. Fíli. How can I make you understand what happened that day?" Thórin asked.

"Huh?" said Fíli, voice muffled from Thórin's beard.

Thórin chuckled but Víli, Thráin, and Legolas all gave him looks that said he needs to tell Fíli and he was trapped here until he did.

"I have never been so scared before Fíli. I didn't see your or Kíli in the room until it was too late. You know you're not allowed in that room. But when Kíli got knocked into the statue by my sword, I thought he was dead." Thórin choked at that last part. That was hard to get out. "I was no better than Ase or my brother," he whispered to his father.

"You were scared, Uncle Thórin?" Fíli asked emerging from Thórin's beard.

"Yes, very. I was so afraid of losing Kíli that I blamed you, and I know that was wrong." Thórin answered.

"So I'm still your heir?" Fíli asked.

"You never stopped," Thórin replied, tears landing in Fíli's blonde curls.

Fíli reburied his head back into Thórin's beard. He had had this little adventure for nothing, but if it were not for his uncle, he would never have met Eydis, Eluf, Oydis and Tyr. Speaking of them, where were they? They had lost their mother to the same orc he had lost his uncle. He had not seen them since Tauriel had brought him to his father, well he was asleep during the trip from the battlefield to the cave (that he was glad to see), but he was slightly worried the caravan had left without him being able to say goodbye.

Fíli lifted his head to see if he could see the caravan or his friends. Thórin thinking Fíli was trying to squirm out of his arms tightened his hold. Fíli could feel that Thórin needed to hold him right now but he needed to see his friends. He wished one of them would make themselves known to them.

"Your Majesties? May I make a request?" a somewhat familiar voice came from behind Fíli, though the voice was clearly directed at his grandfather.

Thórin allowed Fíli to turn around at least but still not releasing him from his hold. Fíli saw that it was Bombur who asked with his brother, cousin, and children in tow. All of them bowed or curtsied in the presence of those they now knew to be royalty.

"Yes you may, what do you request of the House of Durin?" Thráin replied as formally as possible, standing up. In the absence of the King, the Crown Prince has the power to make decisions, though the king can overrule them, Thrór has yet to override a decision Thráin had made.

"Your majesties, as you have seen my wife, and the mother of my children was just murdered by an orc, the same one that murdered one of your own. My children do not have one place to call home. They have never known what it feels to have a bed of their own, or to have a roof over their heads, or even what it feels to be safe." Bombur began as Thráin nodded.

"I no longer feel that without a mother, I can properly raise my children the best way I see fit. It is my request that my family take leave of the wilds of Middle Earth and find shelter within the Mountain."

"I have heard your request Bombur son of Bomper. Allow me to seek council before I make my decision." Thráin said.

Thráin sat back down. He already knew his decision; he just wanted to hear everyone else's opinion. Thráin was glad to see Thranduil sitting next to his son who must have come back during Bombur's request.

"What are you going to do, Grandfather?" Fíli asked before Thráin could even ask for council.

Thráin smiled, his first one since Frérin died. "What do you think I should do Prince Fíli?" Thráin said remaining formal.

Fíli giggled. "I think you should let them come with us. They rescued me Grandfather. If it wasn't for them, I don't think I would be here right now." Fíli said very seriously.

Thórin hugged Fíli again. He knew just how right his nephew's words were, and it really would have been his fault. These nomads were heroes, even the smallest ones for surviving the orcs. They deserved a chance at a true home. Thórin nodded at his father giving his approval. Thranduil gave his approval as well, smiling at Fíli and that approval stood for Legolas.

"That was my decision as well," Thráin said loud enough for Bombur and his family to hear him.

Thráin stood up and faced the nomadic dwarves again. "I along with my council have made a decision that will stand with King Thrór of Erebor as well." Fíli chuckled at this statement earning himself a small smack on the behind from Thórin.

"Bombur, Bofur, and Bifur, it is to my understanding that you have rescued my Grandson, Prince Fíli without any knowledge of who he was. You took him and treated him as your own. I owe you a debt for that greater than all of the gold in Erebor. Young Eydis, Eluf, Oydis and Tyr; you four are some of the bravest dwarflings I have ever met. Sharing an adventure with a Prince is no small task in itself, and surviving in an orc camp is no small manner either. It is with this in mind that I call you all heroes and heroines of Erebor, therefore you and your descendants will always be friends of the House of Durin and will always be welcome to make your home in Erebor as long as your hearts please."

A loud cheer came from the children. Thórin finally allowed Fíli to go and he all but flew to where Eydis and the others were. They all ran around in circles. This was wonderful his new friends and himself would not have to be separated! Kíli would become good friends with Tyr and Oydis, and himself with Eydis and Eluf. This was going to be the best thing ever!

All of the adults laughed at the children's game, despite knowing they lost two of their own. It was going to be a wonderful future…


	14. Epilogue

Every day for two months Dáin watched Dís and Kíli wait by the gate for the arrival of their missing kin. And every day it was the same, nothing. However today was different, it was the first warm day in a long time. The snow on the Mountain was all gone, and for some reason today felt special. Kíli turned towards Dale and saw a whole bunch of people running to the path that led up from Mirkwood to Dale and Erebor. He saw a whole bunch of dwarves and elves on the path, and front and center of the group was a familiar blonde head.

"FEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!"

"Kíli!" Dís said in astonishment, not looking up from her stitching.

"Mama! Look its Fee! Papa, Uncle Thórin, and Grandfather! Even Thranduil and Legolas!" Kíli cried.

Dís finally looked up, not realizing her son did not mention her other brother and looked at the path and cried out in relief. She grabbed Kíli by the hand and ran past Dáin, not without telling him to go get Thrór and her mother and grandmother and down the path.

"Mama! Kíli!" Fíli cried upon seeing them.

Releasing Kíli, Dís fell to her knees and opened her arms allowing Fíli to run into them. Kíli put his hands on Fíli's shoulders. Time seemed to stop as she held her eldest for the first time in nearly four months. She stood up with Fíli still in her arms and felt Víli draw her into his arms. It was all truly over now.

"Thráin? Thórin? Fíli!" yelled Thrór from further up the path.

Dís put Fíli down and allowed him to go to his great-grandfather. Thrór picked him up.

"Oh thank Mahal your safe! I was so worried." Thrór brought their foreheads together in an old-fashioned dwarven hug. "You have to tell me all about your adventure you must have been on. I'm assuming it has to do with the new faces." Fíli nodded.

Thrór put Fíli down as Thráin and Thórin approached with Bombur and his family in tow. Thráin bowed, once again this had to be formal. "Father, this family of dwarves rescued and took care of Fíli when we couldn't. They have requested to make a home in Erebor as friends of the House of Durin and heroes of Erebor. I have already granted their request. I only request that you honor my ruling." Thráin said.

Thrór did not skip a beat, not with Fíli in his arms. "If declared heroes of Erebor these dwarves are then a home in Erebor should these dwarves have. Welcome home friends."

"Thank you, Your Majesty," Bombur answered for all of them as they all bowed.

Thrór beckoned some of the guards that had followed him out of the gates. "Take our new heroes and help them get settled into a new living space. And please help them to prepare for the evening meal, it will be a big celebration."

Thrór could not miss the smiles of all of the children, including the one he was holding and the other one Víli was holding. Thrór waited until the new arrivals have passed through the gate before walking over to Thranduil whom he noticed had not moved from his spot. Thrór squinted, it seemed that he was holding something and was being aided by Legolas, Tauriel, and another elven guard. Thrór took a mental count of his family, it did not take him long to realize just whom the elves were carrying.

"He died protecting Thórin. He died a heroes death. Although he did die alongside a traitor." Thranduil said.

"Ase?" Thrór guessed. "And those children were Ase's? The oldest dwarrowdam looks just like her."

"Good guess, Grandfather," Thórin said, jumping in. "Grandfather, I'm sorry about everything. I can never undo what I did, and I don't think I can ever make things right again with Frérin dying. But please forgive me, I did fix things with Fíli."

Thrór put Fíli down who ran over to his father and brother and quickly embraced Kíli was put on his feet by Víli. He looked over his grandson, his only grandson now, and saw a dwarf who was sorrier than anyone could ever know. Thrór answered by pulling Thórin into a hug. No words were needed.

Thrór released his grandson. "At least Frérin died besides the woman he really truly loved and found in the end, and he would be much honored to know that some of the House of Durin's closest friends are aiding him even in death."

"Thank you Thrór, he would be," Thranduil answered.

"Let's move Frérin to the Throne Room. I'm sure the rest of you have had time to mourn. Tonight we'll have a feast to celebrate Fíli, and I'll announce to the Kingdom tomorrow about Frérin. Thranduil you are going to stay for the feast and funeral" Thrór asked.

"It would be an honor, Thrór." Thranduil said as the two kings led the group into the Mountain.

Fíli and Kíli were still hugging each other on the path when Thórin walked over to them. He took Fíli in one hand and Kíli in the other and led them home. Fíli was a runway no more.

The End.

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A/N: I would like to thank all everyone who left me comments and follows. Its what kept me writing this. Also looking for a co-writer for a possible epilogue/ring quest story. Going to be a long one.


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